Excelsior Correspondent
LEH, Aug 21: Ladakh has been experiencing unprecedented weather conditions of high temperatures as observed over the years, leading to various calamities such as cloud bursts, Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF), heavy rainfall, and landslides, other than being situated in an earthquake-prone zone.
The UT Administration is continuing its efforts to set-up a robust system to deal with any natural calamity and save precious lives. In this regard, a UT level table-top exercise on earthquake, cloud burst and GLOF disasters was organised by Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Department, UT Ladakh led by Secretary DMRRR Amit Sharma, in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India, led by Maj Gen Sudhir Bhel.
In his opening remarks, Advisor Ladakh, Dr Pawan Kotwal, highlighted the rising incidence of calamities such as cloudbursts and GLOFs and stated that the geographical conditions of Ladakh, where there are many GLOFs situated in far-flung little villages and the nature of building houses which are mostly mud-brick houses, leave a devastating aftermath. “We have special challenges and therefore, we must put our best foot forward to deal with such situations,” Dr Kotwal said.
Secretary Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Department, directed that the EOC must be kept functional 24×7 with the presence of officials of all key Departments, which are always at forefront at the times of disasters including Army, BRO, Mechanical Department, NDRF, UTDRF, Health, IMD, Fire Brigade, etc. He further elaborated that a unique day and night mock drill is being organised in the following days to give a close-to-true event experience.
The TTE sessions were conducted by Maj Gen Sudhir Bhel, Lead Coordinator, NDMA.
DC Leh, Santosh Sukhdeve and DC Kargil Srikant Suse spoke of the areas in the respective districts that are calamity-ready and areas that need improvements and were constantly guided by Exercise Coordinator Major General Sudhir Bhel.
During the day-long exercise, Maj Gen Bhel took detailed stock of all the concerned departments’ preparedness to act in case of a calamity in an organised manner. In this regard, he directed all the departments to prepare their detailed Disaster Management Plan and submit it to the respective DCs.
Lt Gen Hitesh Bhalla, Commandant, Fire and Fury Corps spoke on Ladakh’s vulnerability to weather hazards and highlighted the need to take proactive steps and mitigating measures. Col Kirti Pratap Singh, Advisor (Ops & Communication) NDMA stressed on the challenges imposed by the presence of thousands of GLOFs in the Himalayan region.
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