Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Integration through Environmental Legislation in India

Inter-linkages between disasters, environmental degradation, and climatic changes are well recognised as well as linking disaster risk reduction with environmental management. All climate change adaptation measures lead to disaster risk proofing reduction but not vice versa. Integration of DRR with CCA and sustainable development is now becoming prime concern while formulating disaster management strategies worldwide including in India. Assessment and monitoring of environment plays crucial role in generating relevant information that helps in identifying risks, vulnerabilities as well as opportunities to promote resilience of the community. Rules, regulations, and policies for DRR are fundamental to the enhancement of economic, social, and environmental security. It is the first step towards mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development plans. Law and regulations are needed for implementation of provisioning, planning, operation, and monitoring of the functions suggested as a set of guiding principles, whereas a policy is set of guiding principles and roadmap of actions towards a defined aim or goal. Hence, the goal of sustainable development through disaster reduction needs to be operationalized through a set of policies and an effective legal framework. The laws on environmental protection are becoming more relevant in Natural Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the wake of paradigm shift in disaster management. This paper is an attempt to analyse environmental legislations of India in the context of DRR and CCA and develop a broader strategy for inclusion into developmental plans and policies.