Govt approves ₹1,116 crore for disaster mitigation, capacity building projects

New Delhi: A high-level committee, under the chairmanship of Union home and cooperation minister Amit Shah, on Tuesday approved ₹1,115.67 crore for disaster mitigation and capacity building projects for various states.

This comes at a time when the country has seen a sharp rise in landslide events due to extreme weather conditions. Between January and October, India witnessed extreme weather events in 93% of the days – 255 out of 274 days – killing over 3,200 people, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said in a report released earlier this month.

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The committee, comprising Union finance and agriculture ministers, vice-chairman of NITI Aayog as members, considered the proposal to mitigate landslide risk in 15 states, for funding from National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) and another proposal for training and capacity building of Civil Defense volunteers in all states and Union Territories under Preparedness and Capacity Building from the funding window of National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), according to an official statement.

About ₹1,000 crore would go towards the 15 states, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.

Another project

The committee has also approved another project for training and capacity building of civil defense in all states and Union Territories at a total outlay of ₹115.67 crore.

Earlier, the committee had approved urban flood risk mitigation projects in seven cities at a total outlay of ₹3,075.65 crore and glacial lake outburst flood risk management in 4 states at a total outlay of ₹150 crores from National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF).

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The committee approved ₹139 crore each for Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, ₹378 crore for eight north-eastern states, ₹100 crore for Maharashtra, ₹72 crore each for Karnataka and Kerala, and ₹50 crore each for Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Heat and cold waves, cyclones, lightning, heavy rains, floods and landslides also affected 3.2 million hectares of crops, destroyed 236,000 houses, buildings, and killed approximately 9,500 livestock, the CSE report said.

Year of records

As per the India Meteorological Department, 2024 broke many climate records as February recorded its second-highest minimum temperature in 123 years, May witnessed the fourth-highest mean temperature on record, and July, August and September all registered their highest minimum temperatures. October 2024 was the warmest since 1901.

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The Union ministry of home affairs has taken several initiatives to ensure effective management of disasters in the country. Several steps have been taken to prevent any extensive loss to life and property during disasters by strengthening disaster risk reduction system in India.

More than ₹21,476 crore has already been released to the states this year to cope with disasters due to extreme weather events. This includes ₹14,878.40 crore from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to 26 states, ₹4,637.66 crore from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to 15 states, ₹1,385.45 crore from State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF) to 11 states and ₹574.93 crore from NDMF to 6 states.