The importance of learning disaster rescue and preparedness was stressed at a two-day seminar-cum-demonstration on ‘Disaster Management’, organised by the Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Management (CDMM), attached to the VIT university, on its campus, here, recently.
A 35-member team comprising engineers, doctors and rescue workers, under the guidance of the NDRF, demonstrated rescue operations conducted during natural disasters such as earthquakes.
According to programme convenor Dr Ganapathy, attached to the CDMM, while India accounted for two per cent of the total area of the world, its population was equivalent to 16 per cent of the world’s population. It was necessary to prevent any damage likely to be caused by disasters instead of spending sums of money on disaster management.
The focus of the meet was to impart techniques and guidelines to students, to be prepared to manage disasters, he added.
S P Selvan, Deputy Inspector General of Police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) based at Arakkonam, while inaugurating the seminar, said that NDRF battalions established in various parts of the country (Guwahati, Kolkatta, Cuttack, Pune, Gandhinagar, Noida, Patna, Vijayawada and Arakonam) helped in carrying out relief and rescue operations during disasters while propagating the ways of preventing and mitigating damage due to disasters.
Commandant of the battalion M K Varma explained about the rescue operations. Sessions on emergency response, first aid management and disasters mitigation were conducted by experts.
Various equipment used in rescue operations were also displayed at an exhibition put up on the occasion.
Over 600 students from various colleges and organisations from across the country participated.