Is crowd management the need of the hour for India?

India was able to avoid a nature induced tragedy but wasn’t able to avoid a man-made tragedy. A stampede at Ratnagarh temple in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh killed 115 people including women and children. This is 27th major stampede incident out of 29 such incident that took place recently at a religious site in India. A rumor about the bridge collapse led to the stampede.

In a very highly populous country like India and that too where people throng to religious sites in huge numbers an effective crowd management system must be in place. The lax response by the authorities is a cause for concern. An effective crowd management could have saved precious lives. In any event small or large planning and organizing is the key for it to become a success without any mishaps. Anticipating huge crowds especially in countries like India and deploying additional crowd managers (in our case it’s always the Police) is the key first step. Inclusion of volunteers (especially locals) in managing crowds and maintaining a proper dress code is needed, so that people can identify them easily and follow their instructions. Putting up proper sign boards is another way of helping the crowd.

In a country like India maintaining queues effectively is a huge task. As per a recent study by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), forming a snake line and leaving space for people to walk freely and swiftly will help reduce congestion of the crowd. It also stated that all the electric and inflammable material should be marked by sign boards and should be guarded by deploying personnel from miscreant crowd. There should be multiple ways to move in and out of the event arena and raising temporary structures if necessary to reduce crowd congestion. A constant reporting by the authorities about the situation at the venue via loud speakers helps reduce any rumors in the crowd. Medical and fire facilities should be in place in case of any eventuality.

In India lack of proper training in crowd management to the law enforcers is a major drawback in disaster management. Government with the help of NDMA should work in this area of vital need to avoid losing precious lives. A well informed public, well planned administration will give a well organized event. It’s high time that India look at its crowd management system and avoid further loss of life.

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Nobel Peace prize for Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

In a surprising act by the Nobel Foundation it had declared Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Out of all the nominees the prize was given to the least expected. But in the Nobel foundation’s own words the prize was given to the one which is fulfilling the aspirations of the Nobel Prize founder Alfred Nobel that is the world free of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

The OPCW was found in 1997 as the custodian of the Convention on Chemical Weapons. Sixteen years since the organization is making the world free of chemical weapons that are a cause for the loss of human lives. Under the convention, 183 member countries have to comply with the disarmament of the chemical weapons. OPCW looks after the dismantling process and provides its technical and expert support. Currently it is working under the UN mandate to dismantle the huge stockpiles of chemical weapons in Syria. This is the first time that the organization is called in to carry out such a huge task in very short period of time and also in a strife-torn country.

Though it may be seen as a political decision by the Nobel foundation, as the prize announcement for the OPCW came just after the beginning of their work in Syria, but it is a well deserved prize for the organization to its commitment for collective good of the humans. The organization’s mandate has to be followed by some big countries (especially US and Russia who are dragging their feet in dismantling their weapons) in eradicating their huge stockpile of chemical weapons. For its part India which is a member of the convention removed all its chemical weapons four years back. The Hague based organization has to focus more in upholding its mandate and not to fall into the wrong hands or pressurized by the stronger countries for the safer living of the human beings.

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It seems India is ready to face any disaster, Is it so?

At last it seems India had learnt its lesson from past experiences on the value of life of its public. Disaster preparedness is never at its best as during the cyclone Phailin. With technology to its aid both the central government and the two states helped reduce any loss of life drastically as against 1999.

The cyclone Phailin which started as a depression gained in strength over a period in the Bay of Bengal and attained sustained wind speeds of 200-220Kmph, which appeared to cause major destruction bringing back the horrors of 1999 where 10000 people lost their lives at that time to the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odhisa where it had made a landfall on 12th of October. The foreign media too touted the cyclonic storm as a destructive one with a class 5 hurricane size and compared it with the hurricane Katrina that had wrecked havoc in USA in 2005 killing 1800 people and billions of dollars in losses.

With accurate predictions by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and equally precise preparations by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and administration of state governments they were able to minimize the disaster with very less loss of life. Warnings by the IMD led both the state governments to evacuate as many as 550000 people from low-lying areas to much safer relief camps. Specific instructions given by the authorities to the people helped in smooth evacuation without any panic in the people. Compared with both the states the state of Andhra Pradesh is at a much advantage to Odhisa due to its advanced level of preparedness and history of mitigation.

Some steps taken by the authorities in disaster risk reduction and preparedness:

• Mass evacuation of people from low-lying areas.
• Construction of cyclone shelters by the state governments under the central government’s National Cyclone risk mitigation program (NCRMP).
• Putting army, navy and air force in the standby for any eventualities
• Deploying National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to the affected areas
• Proactive steps taken by the district administration
• Lifting off of some dam gates to provide cushion for the flood waters
• Stockpiling of food, water and other resources by the authorities for distribution
• 24x7 media coverage helped sensitize people
• Diverting or halting the transportation network
• Better coordination among the administration
• NGOs participation in sensitizing people

With this experience we can hope that India is ready to face any disaster with minimum loss of life and one day with no loss of life. By further strengthening of preparedness and sensitization of people the disaster management can go a long way in protecting the future of the people and economy of the country.

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