Suresh Kumar Rathi* and Soham Chakraborty
Corona virus has taken up the limelight in the sector of disasters since its arrival, however since then the world has faced various other major and minor hazards which have turned into disasters. Be it the Beirut explosion or the Air-India plane crash, disasters have been continuously creating trouble for people. Being in the same time as Covid-19, these disasters can be labelled as parallel disasters. Parallel disasters are difficult to manage as they have a cumulative impact. Sometimes there are multiple hazards and sometimes one hazard leads to another, both the times disaster management becomes very difficult. However, there is one factor in the form of public health which can strengthen the resilience of the population and thus decrease the cumulative impact without even interacting directly with the disaster.
In this article, we look at various types of disaster which, along with Covid-19, which have either caused havoc or have the potential to become catastrophes, in the Indian context. The article will look at natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, cyclones and the very devastating heat waves along with man-made disasters like industrial disasters and oil spills. The article will also give a considerable heed to epidemics in the form of Covid-19. We will touch upon the topic of disaster management for all the mentioned disasters which can act as parallel disasters in India and look at why public health can be an important element in management of parallel disasters. Finally the article will talk about the Indian disaster management policy and institutional framework and look at where and how parallel disasters and public health systems can be incorporated in it.
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