PREPAREDNESS FOR MITIGATION OF NATURAL DISASTERS

Natural disasters can be classified into two groups, namely Recurrent Disasters such as floods, droughts, landslides, etc. and Non-recurrent Disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, etc. It is quite widely recognized that in many third world countries, disaster mitigaion programmes implemented by government agencies, with or without the participation of NGOs or community based organizations, suffer from a series of defects and distortions. The present article discusses these issues. It also deals with how the society should prepare for monitoring and mitigation of natural disasters.