Local Level Disaster Response Effectiveness in Nepal: Recent (31 March) Tornado as a Case Study

Abstract

Nepal is amongst the most disaster-prone countries in the world.
Annually more than 400 people are dying in various natural
disasters. More than 80% of the population is at risk from natural
hazards like a landslide, flood, fire, cold wave, wind storm,
avalanche, inundation, and glacial lake outburst.
Surprisingly on 31st March 2019, a Tornado occurred in
Parsa and Bara districts. It was for the first time in the history of
Nepal that a tornado of such magnitude occurred and caused
such devastations. Twenty-eight people lost their lives and more
than 600 got severely injured. More than 1400 houses were
turned into rubble.
In the immediate aftermath response operations were
launched. Security forces including government agencies and
humanitarian organizations made their efforts to render rescue
and relief to the victims. But the response effort was not
sufficient. Keeping this tornado response as a case study this
paper examines the gap prevalent in local level disaster
response mechanism in Nepal.
During the research, it was found that the capacity of civil
servants, bureaucrats, and elected representatives functioning at
the local level is not enough to render an effective response.