An Overview of Disaster Management in Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh (BBN) Region of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh (BBN) Region is the one of the biggest industrial hub of Himachal Pradesh. It is located near the Shivalik foot hills. This leading industrial belt of Solan district is spread approximately in 770 acres. It is situated near the borders of Punjab and Haryana and has a plain geographical area. BBN industrial area is prone to geologically related disasters like to earthquake, flash flood and land erosion. Further, it is prone to chemical and industrial disasters such as industrial fires, gas and chemical leakages. Large scale construction has created problems such as cutting of trees and digging of local rivers for sand and stone. In addition, the level of underground water is going down and water is getting polluted due to large number of industries mainly due to pharmaceutical industries. The industrial pollution in the region is leading to various diseases relating to skin, lungs, heart, brain, liver, irritation in eyes etc. Several of the manmade actions may lead to a big natural disaster in the region. It is in this backdrop that this paper seeks to have an overview of disaster management in BBN Region. In particular, the paper studies the probabilities of incidents of disaster in this region along with the responses from the government and other agencies. The paper also attempts to analyse the disaster preparedness of the various agencies and offer suggestions for strengthening the same.