Disaster & Climate Risk Management in
Mountains and North-Eastern States:
Challenges and Opportunities
Taj Hassan
Executive Director
National Institute of Disaster Management,
Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India
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What is Climate Change?
● UNFCCC Definition (Article 1)
"Climate change" means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly
to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in
addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.
Exponential Rise in CO2 Levels Post 1850
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Disaster & Climate Risk Management in
Mountain and North-Eastern States
● Disaster is a sudden adverse or unfortunate extreme event which causes great
damage to human beings as well as plants and animals. Disasters occur rapidly,
instantaneously and indiscriminately, and wipe out years of development in a
matter of hours.
● Repeated experiences have shown that the people, the community, the
society, the government can reduce the risk by preparedness.
● Considering the regular periodicity and gravity of such
disasters like floods, landslides, cyclonic storms and earthquakes in North-East,
appropriate measures need to be adopted and continually refined for
management and mitigation of the consequences.
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Environmental causes and Consequences of
Disasters
Adapted from UNEP/UNISDR (2008)
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International/National Policies on
Disaster and Climate Risk Management
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● Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II - Sixth
Assessment Report (2022) highlighted
○ increasing impacts of climate change on mountains,
○ their attribution to human influence, and
○ how climate-related hazards have contributed to multiplying disasters.
● All these activities are in line with implementation of the 2030 Agenda for
leading to more tailored solutions to reduce disaster risks in mountain areas:
○ Sustainable Development Goals (UN 2015),
○ New Urban Agenda (UN 2017),
○ Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR 2015),
○ Paris Climate Agreement (COP21, 2015), and
○ Agenda for Humanity (UN 2016),
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Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 Conference of the Parties (COP) 26
Paris, France (2015) Glasgow, Scotland (2021)
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Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
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National Climate Change Action PLAN (NAPCC)
2008
• Built by departments’ & agencies’
contributions
• Stakeholder consultation
• Charter for Change & Self Sufficiency
Goal
• Many of the actions already endorsed by
other jurisdictions
For the NE region as per NAPCC
● Himalayan Glaciers and the associated hydrological
consequences
● Biodiversity conservation and protection
● Wildlife conservation and protection
● Traditional knowledge societies and their livelihood and
● Planning for sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
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10
Challenges of North Eastern Region
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Disaster categorization in India – NE region
Broad Type of Disaster Disasters Specific to North-Eastern Region
Water and Climate related Disasters Floods and Drainage Management
Cyclones
Hailstorm
Cloud burst
Geological related Disasters Landslides and mudflows
Earthquakes
Economic losses due to disasters can be Dam failures / dam bursts
reduced by incorporating risk mitigation Chemical, Industrial and Nuclear related Chemical and Industrial Disasters
measures in developmental projects Disasters
Accident related Disasters Forest Fires
Urban Fires
Mine Flooding
Major Building Collapse
Boat Capsizing
Biological related Disasters Biological Disasters and Epidemics
Source: MHA & UNDP, Pest Attacks
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2017
Basic Issues affecting the Mountain Environment
Hydro-meteorological Geophysical Social Issues
Disasters Disasters
1. Vector-Borne Diseases
1. Frequent flood 1. Landslide 2. Inaccessibility and poor
2. Untimely rain 2. Earthquake communication
3. Cloud Burst Vulnerability 3. Uncontrolled and
4. Landslide 3. Forest Fires unregulated
5. Earthquake urbanization
Vulnerability
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Extreme weather events
Floods are an annual occurrence in Assam. In
the recent wave, lakhs of people have been
affected while 1.08 lakh hectares of crops
have been damaged.
The Hindu (June 25, 2022)
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A Few Case Studies
Flood water from 2020 floods in Mas Dihiri
village, Dhemaji district
● Village has shifted by 3 kilometres along with the Kumutiya river
since 1960
● 28 houses in Kekuri village got washed away by the Jiadhal river
floods in 2020
● Large swathes of rice fields covered with sand which will remain
uncultivated for a long time
Source: cseindia.org
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West Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh
● Construction of a highway in the district has affected the health of springs.
● Human interventions exacerbate the impacts of climate change
● At least ten springs from Bhalukpong at the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border
to Morgung village in West Kameng have dried up
● Singchung village is witnessing some major changes to its biodiversity and
climate indicators due to climate change
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Wokha, Nagaland
● In 2018 many villages in the district witnessed floods
for the first time in a generation
● Flood waters could still be seen in December 2020
● New pests and insects attacking vegetable and other
crops
● Butterflies have decreased in number over the years so
have many other small and large animal species that
were common earlier
● Fish number and diversity have come down
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Way Forward
● Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) to fully incorporate
DRR into relief and development policy and practice to radically
expand and enhance DRR to make it a normal practice, fully
institutionalized within the departments’ relief and development
agenda.
● Thorough Risk Assessment
● Response Capacity Building
● Training on mountain / North Eastern States specific subjects
● Improvement of Training infrastructure
● Capacity building for PDNA
● All development sector must imbibe the principles of Disaster Risk
Management
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Way Forward ……contd.
● Research
1. More wide ranging and in depth research into the impacts of climate change in
the region
2. Study of combined impacts of climate change and other human interventions,
especially in the case of the drying mountain springs
3. Involvement of Universities and Institutions
4. Compilation and use of Best Practices
● Adaptation strategies involving Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction; plans
for building resilience and adapting to changes
● Traditional knowledge and Nature Based Solution should be combined with modern
science and technology
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Disaster Specific Recommendations
● Flood:
Water level rise due to global warming may cause floods. Approved
scientific precautionary measures must be taken to prevent the disaster by
treating it at the micro level, thus eliminating the causes which may lead
the flood to acquire the proportion of a disaster.
● Landslide:
1. The major factors contributing to landslides are reduced soil friction,
and improper drainage. Effects of these can be reduced by standard
methods.
2. Local Nature based Solution (NbS)
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Disaster Specific Recommendations…….contd.
● Earthquake:
1. Further, extra fittings to lifeline structures shall help in mitigating
disasters, particularly earthquakes. Construction Industry Development
Council (CIDC) has outlined the modalities of operation of retrofitting
clinic. It is high time that each of the States of the North-east develops
similar methods.
2. Retrofitting following National Building Code
3. State control on unregulated urbanization
4. Capacity building on retrofitting issues
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Micro Level Planning for Climate Risk
Management
● Define Status Quo
● Finalise the objective of the frame work, and climate risk and capacity analysis
● Develop Region Specific Methodology
● Identify Risk
● Evaluate Risk Tolerance
● Identify Feasible options
Requires intensive debate, discussion for framing policy guidelines on each
disaster in terms od subject specific and area specific.
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Online Webinar/Trainings Programmes conducted by NIDM 2020-21
to 2022-23
Year >> 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23
Programmes Programmes Participants Programmes Participants Programmes* Participants
Webinar’s 422 120422 432 89572 88 12360
Online Trainings 186 80454 255 87728 43 7745
Face to Face
Trainings / - - 28 1939 61 3086
Workshops
Total 608 200876 715 179239 192 23191
* Till Aug 2022
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A few Examples of Trainings by NIDM with focus on Hill Areas
Training Programme on “Disaster Resilient Development and
Planning for Earthquake, Landslides, Flash Flood, Erosion and
Climate Risk” in CAEPHT, Ranipool, Sikkim (April 2022)
Inaugurated by H.E. Governor of Sikkim
Training Programme on “Safe Hill Area Development” in State Agriculture Management & Extension Training Centre (SAMETI),
Mashobra, Himachal Pradesh (June, 2022)
Three Days Training of Trainers Program on “Addressing Disaster & Climate Change Issues for Safer Sustainable Hill
Area Development, Covering Forest Fires, Landslides, Avalanches, Lightning, Earthquakes, Cloudburst, Floods, Droughts
& Extreme Weather Events” in Forest Research Institute, Uttarakhand (June 2022)
Training Programme on “Environment Sector and
Disaster Management”
in University of Ladakh, Leh (August 2022)
Special Session by Dr. Sonam Wangchuk
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What do we need from States
For better outreach/larger impact of training, we require few things from states,
such as:
● Organize Workshops & Training programmes on DRR issues on North Eastern
Region
● Permanent Training staff in ATIs and other Training Institutes
● MoU with National Level Institutes
● Regular Training Need Analysis
● States may send requirement for
• Documentation of past or recent disasters
• List of problem areas
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Thank You !
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