DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Abstract
Disasters, of varied nature creates muddiness in the mindset of public in terms of
preparedness as well as response. The backwashes in terms of socio-economy, rehabilitation,
mental status of the people affected by disaster is beyond words. Veterinarians, especially public
health vets have got a lively role in managing the disaster at each step of its cycle- mitigation,
preparedness, response and recovery. Complete solution for the disaster management could only
be achieved by way of an all hazards approach, the one health. One health approach brings all
the class of responsible professionals in to right place, so that the multidisciplinary, intersectoral
approach has been ensured for a right goal. An active community participation could be paid for
successful attainment of the disaster management.

Keywords: disaster, management, one health, veterinarian.

Introduction
Disasters have marked human existence throughout the history and have always resulted
in peaks in terms of morbidity and mortality. In the recent times, the scope and scale of disasters
have increased very rapidly and markedly. The imminent as well as long term effects of these
disasters on large scale populations comprise of the humanitarian crises (Leaning and Guha-
Sapir, 2013). A disaster is defined as ‘a serious interruption of the functioning of a community or
a society involving widespread human, material economic or environmental losses and impacts,
which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources’
(ISDR, 2009). The Disaster Management Act (2005) defines a disaster as ‘a catastrophe, mishap,
calamity or grave occurrence from natural or man-made causes, which is beyond the coping
capacity of the affected community’.

Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, University of Louvain has

classified disasters broadly into natural as well as man-made; among which biologic (epidemic
infectious disease, insect infestations, animal stampede), geophysical (earthquake, volcano, mass
movement) and climate related (hydrologic including flood, landslide, avalanche and
meteorological such as storms, drought, wildfire) are classified under natural disasters. The man-
made ones include biological warfare (anthrax letters) as well as chemical (Bhopal gas tragedy,

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Nuclear disasters) (Heath et al., 1999; Meinegra and Abreu, 2012). The trend among disasters is
accounted in such a fashion that nearly 80% increase has been reported in terms of climate
related events and a stability has been noted among geophysical events. Ever increasing
deforestation, urbanization, environmental degradation and intense climate variations like
extreme temperatures, rainfall, led eventually to surmount of disasters (Leaning and Guha-Sapir,
2013).

Apart from losing lives and livelihoods of millions of individuals on the planet, the
aftermath caused by the disasters (epidemics, psychological disturbances) is beyond words,
where in the role of livestock is also included. This review tries to impart among the readers,
successful way to manage disasters, the need for a multidisciplinary approach and the role of
veterinarians especially, public health veterinarians in disaster management.

Impact of disasters

The famous example of disaster that had tremendous human consequences is the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which led to the destruction of Pompeii (Durand and Grattan,
2001). In the modern era, an array of disasters has occurred including Great Lisbon earthquake
of 1755, which swept away around 60,000 human lives, the Bengal cyclone of 1970 which
affected the humans in terms of huge death toll as well as livelihoods, 2004 tsunami of Indian
ocean, destroying thousands in South East Asia and 2010 Haiti earthquake, affecting the
population directly as well as indirectly (Schneider et al., 2012). These disasters has impacted
the human civilizations in multitude of ways, which is summarized in Table 1. The economics
involved in disaster management cannot be expressed in terms of economics alone, since the
psychological effects of these disasters on humans should also be taken into consideration. The
Gujarat earthquake of 2001 calculated a net asset loss, worth Rs. 15,000 crores and a sum of Rs.
11,500 crores was spent on relief and reconstruction (Kaur, 2006).

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DIRECT IMPACT INDIRECT IMPACT TERTIARY IMPACT

Human lives Exports/imports Health hazards

Livestock and animals Agricultural output Long term development

Private property Industry/services output Overall investment

Municipal infrastructure Remittance income Funds allocation

Power/telecommunications Fall in earning potential Community migration/relocation

Health/education Unemployment

Table 1: Impacts of disasters on various facets of life (Gupta, 2001)

Impact of livestock affected disasters

The disasters not only affect human population, but also jeopardize the animal wealth of
the affected region. It is cited that livestock keeping will provide a pathway out of poverty,
promote repositories of wealth and serves as units for production. Individuals engaged in
livestock rearing, whose earning less than US$ 2 per day are classified as poor farmers;
approximately 1 billion population falls under this criteria, of which 600 million are residing in
South Asia, that too in India (ILRI, 2012). The disaster influences the livestock population in
terms of spoilage of food and/or water supply, animal bites and associated diseases, zoonoses,
reduced dairy and livestock production, emotional sentiment of the owner consociated with the
loss of animal. The epitomes of these disasters include natural calamities like East Bengal
cyclone (1970), El-Nino Southern Oscillation (1997-‘98), chemical disasters like, Bhopal gas
tragedy (1984), Chernobyl nuclear tragedy (1986).

The East Bengal cyclone of 1970 killed approximately 60% of the entire cattle population
within an area of over 5000 sq.km; around 30-80% farmers lost livelihoods due to livestock
farming and loss of cultivable lands. The fishing industry was severely affected, since 90%
fishermen lost essential equipment (Sommer and Mosley, 1972). The El-Nino phenomenon of
1997-’98 was associated with heavy rains in Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania which, eventually

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resulted in outbreaks of Rift Valley fever. The mortality rates were accounted between 50-75%
in the early stages of outbreak (Heath et al., 1999). The catastrophic Bhopal tragedy (leakage of
40 metric tons of methyl isocyanate) continued to thwack the surroundings by the heavy metal
contamination and persistent heavy metal contaminants, as late as 1999 which led as a serious
hazard to the human as well as livestock of the area (Sen and Chander, 2003). Sheep farmers of
the Wales region were not successful in selling their animals even after ten years of Chernobyl
nuclear disaster due to the excess radioactivity on pastures (Heath et al., 1999).

Disasters- Indian scenario

The geographical location of India makes it one of the most disaster prone countries. The
country has a tropical and sub-tropical climate with a heavy concentration of rainfall over three
months during a year. Except for volcanic eruptions, the country faced all sorts of natural
calamities in the past years. The subcontinent continues to report a major event once in every 3
years. Out of the 32 states of our country, 22 are prone for disasters. Approximately, 40 million
hectares are vulnerable to floods; 68% of the net sown area for drought; 8,000 km of the coastal
belt for cyclones and tsunamis, and earthquakes and landslides of varying intensity in every
plane of India, due to the young and unstable tectonic plates (Kaur, 2006; IDKN, 2009). The
aftermaths of the disasters in terms of epidemics, are also not unexampled. For instance, plague
outbreak after the Latur earthquake of 1993 is a prototype for this fact; pandemics of cholera
after floods of Bengal region substantiates the aforesaid fact. In any developing nation, stress is
not given in its true sense towards alleviating livestock problems and associated disasters, even
though livestock constitutes principal source of agricultural power.

Disaster management
The term ‘disaster management’ (DM) is defined as the systematic process of using
administrative directives, organizations, and operational skills and capacities to implement
policies and improved coping capacities in order to lessen the adverse impacts of hazards and the
possibility of disaster (Meinegra and Abreu, 2012). Classically, any disaster management
approach is divided under four heads viz., mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

a. Mitigation: Mitigation involves any activities that prevent emergencies, reduce the
chance of emergency happening, or reduce the damaging effects of unavoidable
emergencies and thereby minimizing their effects, after disaster. The mitigation

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 strategies should always be employed before or even after the emergencies has
occurred.
b. Preparedness: The process of handling an emergency, including the plans or
preparations that are made to save lives and to help response and rescue operations
carried out before an emergency is termed as preparedness.
c. Response: Recovery phase of any disaster comprises of all the actions taken in order
to save the lives and prevent further property damage in any emergency situation.
Response is putting preparedness plans into action during an emergency.
d. Recovery: This stage includes those actions taken in order to return to a normalcy or
an even safer situation, usually following an emergency.

Disaster Management Act and implications

In the past years, there existed no national level disaster management, coordinated
institutional framework, sectoral coordination, early warning system, trained dedicated search
and rescue and poor community empowerment, which existed as serious impediments to
response following disasters. Taking these gaps into considerations, United Nations has declared
1990-1999 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), following
which a permanent disaster management cell was constituted by the Government of India under
Ministry of Agriculture. In 1999, a High Powered Committee was created in order to review the
existing disaster preparedness and mitigation mechanism and recommend measures to strengthen
at national, state as well as at local levels. The formulations of this committee, enhanced by the
super cyclone of Odisha (1999) and Gujarat earthquake (2001), laid the strong foundation stone
for the Disaster Management Act (2005) enacted on December 26 th, exactly a year later to the
Indian Ocean tsunami. This act called forth a strong, multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral and multi
hazard approach for effective management of hazards.

The DM Act (2005) provides the establishment of National Disaster Management

Authority (NDMA), the supreme decision making body for the management of disasters in the
country, headed by Prime Minister at the centre. The act also furnishes with instituting State
Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by Chief Ministers and District Disaster
Management Authorities (DDMAs) headed by District collectors/magistrates. The institutional
framework of disaster management under the DM Act is illustrated in Fig. 1.

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Figure 1: Institutional framework of disaster management under DM Act (2005)

The National Policy on Disaster Management (NPDM), 2009 aims at developing an

integrated, holistic, multi-disaster oriented and technology driven strategy for disaster
management involving prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response. It outlines the
institutional, financial and techno- legal arrangements relating to disaster management and
details response, relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery mechanisms. As per the
guidelines, Ministry of Home Affairs is the nodal ministry providing financial assistance in the
aftermath of any disaster. Based on the 13th financial commission, the schemes for response
funding was operationalized from 2010-’15 for the relief measures to people affected by the
disasters rather than other management strategies.

Public health measures/breakdowns in disasters

The public health breakdowns involved in disaster management include mainly the water
or food borne diseases, air borne diseases, vector borne diseases, diseases associated with the
safe disposal of dead and dying animals and corpses, biomedical waste and disease surveillance
programmes. For any socio-economic system to be in healthy equilibrium, there require the safe
food, water, air and environment in which the individual lives in. Hence, the role of veterinarians
is ensured at different stages of disaster management, to be more fruitful.

Role of vets in Disaster Management

The training, expertise and clinical experience of veterinarians enable them to make
important contributions to planning and responding to various disasters. The role of veterinarians
in disaster management is said to be wide spectrum. The clinical training of veterinarians provide

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them with substantial experience in a number of fields, ranging from management of zoonotic
diseases to emergency triage. The potential role of veterinarians before, during and after the
disaster features resolution of problems to an array of disasters, control of disease vectors,
control of disease transmission, herd management, animal health care, search and rescue
operation, animal control, maintenance of medical supplies, information dissemination, disaster
assessment and pre-disaster planning (Moore et al., 1991).

By virtue of the training and expertise, veterinarians are instrumental in the resolution of
array of problems that are common to many disasters. The damage created to the farms, homes,
industry, animal housings, slaughter halls and animal product plants are to be mentioned. Mass
scale destruction of habitats, existing infectious diseases are exacerbated by disruption of
accommodation and subsequent overcrowding of human and animal populations. Transmission
of communicable diseases such as large scale outbreaks of food poisoning and water borne
diseases are also accelerated as a consequence of disasters. It can also compromise food safety,
loss of power, refrigeration and/or transportation. The prime role of veterinarians is to make firm
decisions under such circumstances regarding common problems in disasters.

During and after the disasters, the role of veterinarians in prevention and control of vector
borne diseases is worthwhile. After natural disasters involving hydrological impact, the
mosquitoes may increase leading to the outbreak of malaria, dengue and other diseases. Flies and
ticks also infect the individuals with the etiological agents that they may lodge. Monitoring the
application of insecticides in eradication of vectors is a strategic method at this time.
Veterinarians are skilled professionals in managing the situations necessitating overcrowding of
livestock at the refugee camps, paving the way for transmission of infectious agents. They
monitor animal populations to detect disease, identify the agent and assess magnitude of problem
(Heath et al., 1999). On controlling zoonotic diseases, a combined knowledge of veterinarian as
well as a physician is praiseworthy than either of them alone.

Initial efforts during any disaster should be directed to the most valuable farm animals
and other valuable livestock. Veterinarians are forced to deal with attempted constraints levied
by livestock owners who may not be willing to permit them in selection and identification of
animals for triage. Under such circumstances which demands gathering and transportation of
animals should preferably be done under the direction of a veterinarian. In any case, if the

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animals cannot be evacuated, veterinarians are responsible to take required actions in
management of the herd as a part of emergency preparedness plans (Sen and Chander, 2003).

Therapeutic interventions at right time in diseased animals should be a matter of urgent

concern. Distribution of medical supplies, interventions used and animals on which interventions
made are decided by vets. They are responsible in maintaining the record keeping of mortality,
fertility and production during intervention of drugs. Apart from these, the use of animals (dogs,
horses) for rescuing and searching of humans is employed by vets during crises (Moore et al.,
1991). The destruction of housing and enclosures lead to the release of animals endangering
safety and health of humans. The unrestricted roaming about of domestic animals lead to
interaction with wildlife and with human population, eventually lead to increased vector
potential of disease transmission. The animal bite resulting in the spread of agents such as,
Pasteurella multocida, Clostridium tetani are well documented.

The dislocation of transportation and property destruction leads to the reduced

availability of medical as well as veterinary supplies coupled with increased demand of the same.
It is of immense value to disseminate the information with regard to the treatment and quarantine
of animals and handling of specimens while disasters has occurred. The dedicated group of
veterinarians are also engaged in: a) development of ways in which information is collected to
determine association between hazardous substances and human or animal health, b)
performance of animal studies to assess public health effects and c) active development of
national registries covering various public health consequences. At present, veterinarians are
under-represented as members of disaster management assistance team. An interdisciplinary
pooling of knowledge facilitate accurate anticipation and preparedness for any potential disaster.
With these eligible qualities, veterinarians should be included in a personnel list of experts who
would be willing to avail themselves for consultation during an emergency, and if required serve
as responders at emergency site at the event (Maililay, 2000).

One Health in DM
The responsible workforce team includes physicians, veterinarians, environmentalists,
epidemiologists, nurses, sanitary engineers, IT experts, statisticians, lawyers, entomologists,
health educators, public health engineers that act in a coordinated manner. In short, all hazards
approach to disaster management is a One Health approach. One health initiative task force of

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American Veterinary Medical Association (2008) defined one health as “the collaborative effort
of multidisciplines working locally, nationally and globally- to attain optimal health for people,
animals, plants and our environment”. Veterinarians are valuable ‘One Health’ practitioners
since they are trained medical professionals with the unique ability to respond to the unknown.
This professional group is well versed with veterinary care, animal handling, public health,
communicational, and organizational skills and leadership abilities that enables them strong
advocates of this doctrine of ‘one health’ at the time of disasters.

Public Health Veterinarians in Disaster Management

It is quite clear that public health veterinarians play a key role in managing disasters. At
each and every stage of disaster management, experts of Veterinary Public Health is employed to
devote their functions (Heath et al., 1999).

a. Mitigation: The professionals are involved in strengthening animal health services of

developing countries as well as developed nations. A thorough knowledge in public
health epidemiology is requisite for these trained personnel to strengthen the system and
thereby mitigating hazards. Also, it is during this critical time, transboundary diseases
cross borders; hence an idea with regard to transboundary disease, the prevention and
control is essential. The act of terrorism (bioterrorism) is also a major factor which
requires attention. These factors are prevented by proper partnership with trade and travel
to deal with disease at endemic sites, offer and share resources and establishing a strong
veterinary community.
An early warning system (eg: GLEWS, GOARN, EMPRES) mediated knowledge
dissemination is pivotal at each point of time.
b. Preparedness: The essence of timely and community based education and preparedness
is required for any disaster preparedness. The early warning systems monitor food supply
and demand across the world, provides policy makers and analysts with updated
information on crop prospects and early warning on imminent food crises. The prime
objective of these systems is to enable the governments and organizations to take
necessary actions that should arise out of need. An incentive based pyramid of knowledge
scale also could be made for the dissemination of information to the grass root.

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 c. Response: In response phase of disaster, several issues arise in public health phase.it is
important at this stage that animals are kept apart from humans. Animals should be
vaccinated and treated upon arrival if necessary. Human vaccinations should be
coordinated with animal vaccination. Besides these facts, disposal measures are taken
into priority. Carcasses lying close to human and animal habitation, or water sources
should either be removed or destroyed immediately. Composting on site may be the most
practical alternative in most cases to dispose large carcasses. Effective communication
strategies also should be provided as a part of coordinated emergency management effort.
d. Recovery: The establishment and agreement of international trade and mutual aid to
supply goods and to restock livestock following any disaster comprises the recovery
stage. This phase calls forth enough collaboration and participation between different
nations all over the world.

In the light of these review, the requirements of public health in disasters include: identification
of disaster hot spots in the globe, provision of support to risk affected nations thereby helping
them in effective rehabilitation, active participation in preparedness plans, multidisciplinary level
training for different levels or disciplines and ensuring solidarity among different geographical
area and people (Schneider et al., 2012).

Disasters are considered to be an unprecedented tragic event causing severe impediment

to the lives, livelihoods as well as the development of a nation. The impact caused by the
disasters to the developing as well as developed nations may vary due to the early warning and
proper management cycle employed in handling the situation. The public health events
associated with the disasters compel the public health experts entering this field of disaster
management. All hazards approach in managing disasters is mainly said to be attained by the one
health concept, where in the veterinarians especially public health veterinarians play a significant
role in managing them very effectively. The role of public health veterinarians in each and every
stage of disaster management including pre-disaster planning should be given more priority in
the new phase of emerging disasters especially, emerging diseases and bioterrorism. Hence
public health visionaries are required to promote the goal of disaster management into action.

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