The Wayanad district administration has come out with disaster management plans for tribal hamlets to help them respond to natural calamities and other emergency situations.
Many tribal hamlets, especially those of vulnerable communities such as the Paniya and the Kattunayakkan, are in disaster-prone areas and a majority of the tribespeople are yet to learn the basics of disaster management, says Wayanad District Collector A. Geetha. It led the district administration to draft the disaster management plan, the first such plan in the country for the marginalised section of society, she adds.
“We have prepared the plan for 27 of the 3,196 hamlets in the district in the first phase and the project will be implemented by the district emergency operating centre, she says.
The hamlets in 10 grama panchayats were identified by tribal development officers in each local body after considering natural calamities and disasters such as floods, forest fires, landslips and wildlife attacks.
Though the State Disaster Management Authority had sanctioned the pilot project in 2020 and allotted a sum of ₹8 lakh, the execution of the project was delayed after the pandemic outbreak.
The officials of the Fire and Rescue Services and Health departments had trained selected tribespeople in the basics of disaster management, rescue operations and life support as part of the project. As many as 1,000 persons took part in the first phase and 400 selected educated tribal youths among them participated in the second phase of the training programme.
A special training programme was also organised for tribal promoters and tribal extension officers in selected grama panchayats on preparing disaster management plan. Seminars were conducted for tahsildars, station house officers, members of NGOs, fire and rescue officers, panchayat secretaries and tribal development officers in connection with the project.
Possible threats were assessed on the basis of data collected from the programme and the plan was made after mapping the relief camps functioning in nearby areas. Rapid response teams (RRT), consisting of 10 members each, in each hamlet have been constituted and the Fire and Rescue Services department has provided training for them.
