Disaster Management in Gujarat

What the official syllabus says

General Studies-III (Main Examination, Paper VI), (B) Environmental Science and Disaster Management:

• Disaster Management in India and Gujarat: Types of disasters, Disaster Management framework, Role of technology, Community participation and capacity building, lessons learnt from major disasters, Challenges and future strategies.

This page takes the Gujarat part of the line. Gujarat faces almost every kind of hazard: earthquakes in Kachchh and Saurashtra, cyclones and storm surges on its long coast, floods in the south and centre, droughts in the north-west, and industrial accidents in its chemical belts.

Topics in detail

Hazard profile of Gujarat

• Earthquakes: Kachchh is among the most earthquake-prone areas of India (a very high hazard zone on the BIS seismic zone map), and most of the rest of the State lies in moderate to high hazard zones; active faults of Kachchh
• Cyclones and storm surges: the Saurashtra and Kachchh coasts face the Arabian Sea, with cyclones mostly before and after the monsoon
• Floods: in the Narmada, Tapi, Mahi and Sabarmati basins, flash floods in North Gujarat (Banaskantha), urban floods (Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad)
• Drought: recurrent in Kachchh, Saurashtra and North Gujarat; groundwater depletion
• Heat waves in Ahmedabad and North Gujarat; lightning
• Tsunami risk from the Makran subduction zone (the 1945 Makran tsunami reached the Gujarat coast)
• Industrial and chemical hazards: Ankleshwar, Vapi, Dahej, Hazira, Jamnagar; ports; shipbreaking at Alang
• Epidemics: the Surat plague (1994); vector-borne diseases

Major disasters and their lessons

• Allah Bund earthquake in the Rann of Kachchh (1819)
• Machhu dam failure at Morbi (11 August 1979): dam safety and flood warning
• Kandla cyclone (1998): storm surge at the port and the need for coastal warning
• Kachchh (Bhuj) earthquake of 26 January 2001: collapse of buildings in Bhuj, Anjar, Bhachau and Ahmedabad; the lesson that building codes must be enforced; owner-driven reconstruction
• Surat floods (2006): releases from the Ukai dam and reservoir operation
• Cyclone Tauktae (2021) on the Saurashtra coast and Cyclone Biparjoy (2023) near Jakhau in Kachchh: evacuation before landfall kept deaths low
• Morbi suspension bridge collapse (2022): safety of public structures and crowd management

Disaster management framework in Gujarat

• Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (2001), set up after the earthquake
• Gujarat State Disaster Management Act, 2003: the first State law on disaster management, two years before the national Act
• State Emergency Operation Centre and district emergency operation centres; the Relief Commissioner (Revenue Department)
• Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (Gandhinagar); State Disaster Response Force
• State and district disaster management plans; hazard risk and vulnerability atlas

Role of technology in Gujarat

• Institute of Seismological Research (Gandhinagar) and its network of seismographs; earthquake monitoring in Kachchh
• Earthquake-resistant construction and retrofitting of public buildings; the Gujarat Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction programme
• Coastal early warning and multi-purpose cyclone shelters under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project
• Reservoir operation and flood forecasting for the Narmada and Tapi
• Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan (2013), the first of its kind in South Asia, with warnings, cool roofs and hospital preparedness
• Industrial safety: off-site emergency plans for chemical clusters; Major Accident Hazard units

Community participation and capacity building

• Community-based disaster management in coastal and earthquake-prone villages
• School safety programme and mock drills; training of masons in safe construction
• Volunteers, NGOs and self-help groups in relief and reconstruction after 2001
• Fishermen's warning systems and evacuation committees on the coast

Challenges and future strategies

• Rapid urban and industrial growth on the coast and in seismic zones
• Climate change: stronger Arabian Sea cyclones, heavier rain spells, longer heat waves
• Salinity ingress and coastal erosion
• Building code compliance in fast-growing towns; ageing dams and bridges
• Integrating disaster risk reduction with industrial and port development

Overlaps

• Gujarat: Physical Features and Resources on this paper: the geography behind these hazards.