The story (probably apocryphal) goes that the then Prime Minister of England, Benjamin Disraeli, was once asked the difference between the words misfortune and calamity. Disraeli is said to have replied that, if his political rival William Gladstone were to drown in the river Thames, it would be a misfortune, and that, if he (Gladstone) were to be pulled out, it would be a calamity!
Soon after the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) came into being, the Members settled the issue of nomenclature, and decided to follow the description used in the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005, namely disasters. While mankind has been exposed to the fury of natural and man-made disasters from times immemorial, there has been in recent times a particularly disturbing trend in their occurrence. A clear secular trend is visible in the intensity and frequency of disasters all over the world.
Also, experience has shown that, while the incidence of disasters is more or less uniform across the countries of the world, the impact thereof is unevenly spread, with the developed countries showing greater ability to overcome the after effects, as compared to the underdeveloped nations. And, remembering that the people of the developing nations are among the poorest in the world, one can understand why the subject of DM has been accorded great importance in the United Nations and other international and regional fora.
Over the last four decades or so, there has been a paradigm shift in the approach DM all over the world, away from the erstwhile post–event emphasis, towards a new focus on mitigation, preparedness and, in some cases, even prevention. In other words, the order in which the 2 Ps (Prevention and Preparedness) and 3 Rs (Rescue, Relief and Rehabilitation) of the DM continuum are dealt with, has been altered, with greater importance being attached to the 2 Ps and special attention on the M (Mitigation). Also, DM is being increasingly informed by the realisation that the use of state–of–theart knowledge and sensitivity to the imperatives of environmental-friendliness should be built into the design of the projects, programs and interventions.
