Dakshina Kannada is now better prepared to handle disasters'

Mangalore, November 9: The coastal district of Dakshina Kannada may now be better prepared than before to handle disasters thanks to the training programme conducted in the city by National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), New Delhi, under aegis of Ministry of Home Affairs.

The five-day training programme on Incident Response System (IRS) for officials of various departments in and around Dakshina Kannada district concluded on Friday.

From the past four days, 34 officers, directors and heads of various departments such as Fire, Health department, Home Guards, Food and Civil supplies, Fisheries, Minor Irrigation division, Department of Horticulture and Social Forestry, were trained in six modules in Incident Response System, for better response and management during natural or man-made disasters. On Friday, they were trained in simulation exercises on a disaster scenario of flooding. A five-member team of experts conducted the training programme and simulation exercises for officers in Mangala auditorium at Mangalore City Corporation building.

Speaking to media persons, a member of the expert team, Colonel P K Pathak from NIDM said that training in IRS would be ingrained to all the officials in the district, thereby enabling them to manage all available resources efficiently during natural or man-made disasters. The management system will help in employing all resources at the incident site, with a minimum loss to life and infrastructure. The NIDM would be conducting training programmes on IRS in districts of five states in the first phase, including Dakshina Kannada, Sikkim, Bihar, Mizoram and West Bengal, he said.

Another expert Rajesh Bhatia, Assistant Director, Directorate of Training, Union Territory of Civil Services, Delhi, said that the training in IRS helped the district administration to understand how the complications in a disaster escalated, how to deploy the various resources, and evaluate their response and ability to think and take decisions under stressful situations. It will help the officers to realise and comprehend who is in charge and what his job is in the Incident Response Team. The Incident Response team is headed by the Incident Commander, and under him would be Chiefs in Planning section, Logistics section and Operations section, he said.

Participating in the training programme and simulation exercise, O R Srirangappa, District Health Officer, said that usually the district administration tended to plan response operations after disasters occur. “But we cannot render optimum use of persons and resources in such situations. Without proper planning, we will fail. For success, proper planning is important. First and foremost, we must have a distinct plan for disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, chemical hazards etc. And Mangalore being the hub of industries and petro-chemicals, a proper response system is required,” he said.

The training programme is being conducted in accordance with the IRS Guidelines which were issued in July 2010 by National Disaster Management Authority.

Jim Payne, another member of the expert team, said that that he was impressed with the response of the training that had been conducted. Disaster management is a challenge now in a city like Mangalore where people are concentrated in certain areas and traffic is mounting. “After this training programme, I think the district will be better prepared to respond to emergencies. As population and infrastructure grows, the district needs to be better prepared,” he said.

Jim Payne is a member of US Forest Service International programme, with over 30 years of experience in disaster management. He has been a member of command team during Hurricane Andrew and Katrina in US.

Assistant Commissioner of Mangalore Sub Division, M.V. Venkatesh, District Information Officer Rohini K and several officials participated in the training programme.