Community Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction: A Case Study of Chamoli District, Uttarakhand

The Himalayan terrain is highly fragile and presently faced with the dilemma of maintaining a balance between development and ecology and environment conservation with changing climate resulted into increasing number of disasters. In the recent past, cloud burst and flash floods events are on rise in case of 2013 Kedarnath Tragedy, which resulted into huge loss of life and property. Hence, there is a need for a systematic linkage between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to advance sustainable development. Therefore, if the affected communities are involved in the process of disaster risk assessment and reduction, the impact of disaster can be minimized to a great extent, and therefore developing a suitable community-based disaster management technique is required. This paper presents a preliminary finding on community engagement in disaster risk assessment, management and strengthen the capacity of communities to cope up with the disaster involving the concept of community-based disaster management (CBDM) by using local knowledge at Kandey and surrounding villages in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. Emphasis was placed on collection of disaster experience and skills development of locals in the identifying and characterizing of various hazards in villages with special emphasis on landslide and preparedness for coping with disaster. The methodology has basically proposed in two stage: assessing of community vulnerabilities, capacity of multiple hazards in selected settlement by community engagement and participation characterized by training and skills development for multi-hazards risk assessment and disaster risk mitigation. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and participatory mapping have been effectively used to identify risk elements and coping capacity of the community in case of any future event. Finally, a disaster management plan has been prepared through community participation in the form of simplified maps showing safe shelters, escape routes, medical facilities, etc. The study provides the example of the utility of community-based disaster management approach for solution toward the effective mitigation of landslide and associated hazards especially in developing countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Geography, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India Suman Das
2. Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India Ashis Kumar Saha

1. Suman Das

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Editors and Affiliations

1. Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, Delhi, India Vishwa Raj Sharma
2. Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong, Meghalaya, India Chandrakanta

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Das, S., Saha, A.K. (2024). Community Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction: A Case Study of Chamoli District, Uttarakhand. In: Sharma, V.R., Chandrakanta (eds) Making India Disaster Resilient. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50113-5_17

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• DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50113-5_17
• Published : 27 February 2024
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• Online ISBN : 978-3-031-50113-5
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