Parliament Question: Strengthening Disaster Management

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2678 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 16TH DECEMBER, 2025/ AGRAHAYANA 25, 1947

(SAKA) STRENGTHENING DISASTER MANAGEMENT

2678. SHRI VISHALDADA PRAKASHBAPU PATIL:

SHRI NARESH GANPAT MHASKE:

SMT. BHARTI PARDHI:

SHRI RAVINDRA DATTARAM WAIKAR:

SHRI SHRIRANG APPA CHANDU BARNE:

DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has strengthened the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and SDRFs with advanced rescue equipment, communication tools and specialised disaster response training, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether early warning systems, emergency communication networks and community alert systems have been modernised to handle floods, earthquakes and urban disasters, if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether State and district administrations are being trained in disaster preparedness, mock drills and hazard mapping, if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the Government has integrated drone surveillance, real-time flood monitoring and GIS-based disaster modelling into NDMA operations, if so, the details thereof; and

(e) whether these initiatives have improved India’s resilience and response capacity during natural and man-made disasters, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI NITYANAND RAI)-2- L.S.US.Q.NO. 2678 FOR 16.12.2025

(a): National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is procuring/using the equipments in disaster situation as per authorization and holding of equipment as well as operational requirement of Force. Further, based on the operational scenario and in light of recent operations conducted at the national and international level, the equipments are being upgraded in accordance with the operational debriefs and the suggestions provided by the rescuers involved in the operations. NDRF has also established an Research and Development (R&D) Cell for the assessment of equipment and for updating it from time to time as per operational requirements. New equipment authorization is also received periodically based on operational needs.

Procurement of equipments in the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) falls in the domain of the concerned State/UTs.

National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) has been conducting training programs on regular basis on allied subjects such as Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear & Explosives (CBRNE) Disaster Risk Reduction and Response (DRR&R) and Psychosocial Care in Disaster Management for NDRF and SDRF. Five such specialized and thematic courses have been conducted for the officials from NDRF and SDRF. Additionally the-3- L.S.US.Q.NO. 2678 FOR 16.12.2025 officials from NDRF and SDRF are also nominated to attend the training programs and comprehensive courses conducted by NIDM. NIDM has trained approximately 200 officials from NDRF and SDRF since 2022-23 till

11.12.2025.

(b): National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has implemented “Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)” based Integrated Alert System on Pan India basis for dissemination of alerts pertaining to various disasters. The Alerts are being disseminated in geo-targeted manner and also, in regional vernacular. The project integrates five Forecast and Warning Agencies namely India Meteorological Department (IMD), Central Water Commission

(CWC), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE) and Forest Survey of India (FSI) with State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMA’s) of all States/UTs. The Alerts are currently being disseminated through SMS, Mobile App, Sachet Public Portal, GAGAN & NaVIC Satellite terminals and RSS feed.

Further, As a non-structural measure of flood management, CWC issues short- range flood forecasts with a lead time up to 24 hrs to concerned State Governments at identified locations. CWC also issues inflow forecasts to identified reservoirs for proper reservoir regulation. Presently, flood forecasts-4- L.S.US.Q.NO. 2678 FOR 16.12.2025 are issued by CWC at 350 stations (150 Inflow Forecast Stations + 200 Level Forecast Stations) as per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The network has been established in consultation with State Govt/Project authorities. CWC is providing Seven-day advisory flood forecast on its web portal

https://aff.india-water.gov.in/ through pan India rainfall-based mathematical modelling for major river basins of the country.

(c): State and District administrations are regularly being trained in Disaster preparedness through Mock exercises by NDRF. NDRF has conducted total 6505 Mock exercises from 2011 to 2025. Further, in addition to it various initiatives undertaken in this regard by NDMA for disaster preparedness and

response mechanism during natural disaster are enumerated below:-

(i). NDMA has been actively facilitating the conduct of State and Multi State Level Mock Exercises on various hazards as per their vulnerability profile like Floods, Landslides, Earthquakes, Cyclones and Chemical (Industrial) disasters etc. in close co-ordination with States and Union Territories.-5- L.S.US.Q.NO. 2678 FOR 16.12.2025

(ii). NDMA is also conducting Multi State level Mock Exercises based on Geo-Climatic conditions for ensuring greater coordination amongst neighbouring States during disasters.

(iii). Integrated Mock Exercises provide an optimal, cost-effective means for generating awareness about the Incident Response System-Incident Response Team construct, and for building capacity of States/UTs to respond effectively to any disaster situation.

(iv). NDMA shares feedback with concerned State / UT after successful conduct of each Mock Exercise, highlighting best practices and gaps identified to improve their preparedness and build their capacities in order to achieve the goal of making India a disaster resilient country. Apart from it NDMA takes following steps to improve

preparedness and response: • Pre-Monsoon/Pre-Season Meetings • Alert Dissemination. • Regular Weather & Hazard Warnings. • Inter-Agency Coordination.-6- L.S.US.Q.NO. 2678 FOR 16.12.2025 Further, NIDM has been conducting training programmes in collaboration with stakeholders from states from Administrative Training Institute (ATIs), State Institute of Rural Developments (SIRDs), District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs). NIDM follows a well-defined and systematic procedure for inviting nominations in its training programmes, ensuring inclusiveness and balanced participation from states. As part of this process, NIDM formally calls for nominations of senior and middle level officials from these states-level agencies. This broad outreach enables the institute to engage a wide spectrum of professionals from states in the field of disaster management. Since the year 2022-2023 till 11.12.2025, NIDM has conducted 392 Face-to- Face training programs with 33 states and UTs in which 21376 participants were trained and 242994 participants through 1075 webinars.

(d): Central Water Commission (CWC) maintains 1543 flood monitoring stations and has installed sensor based data acquisition & satellite based transmission system (Telemetry stations) at 1121 locations across major river basins, including Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Godavari etc, for hourly-7- L.S.US.Q.NO. 2678 FOR 16.12.2025 monitoring of river water levels during flood monitoring period to support flood forecasting and disaster mitigation. These stations utilize advanced technologies, such as INSAT satellite-based communication and GSM/GPRS systems, to ensure near-real-time data transmission under diverse weather conditions, enabling timely and informed decision-making. To enhance system reliability, CWC is taking help of Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) to conduct a detailed study of the telemetry system and provide recommendations for a more resilient and efficient framework. Over the next five years, CWC plans to upgrade its network based on recommendations of C-DOT. During flood season 2025 (till 30th November

2025), a total of 11687 forecasts (6541 level forecasts and 5146 inflow forecasts) were issued throughout the country out of which 11203 forecasts were within limit with an accuracy of 95.86%.

(e) The proactive measures taken by the community, public representatives, functionaries of the line departments, administration and the disaster management authorities in a coordinated manner as a team achieved “Zero Casualty Goal” during the cyclone Biparjoy.

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