ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the author’s vivid experience as a journalist sent to cover the beautiful terrain submerged under floods. The Jammu and Kashmir in September 2014 marked a watershed in the history of disaster management in India. It exposed the fault lines in this strategically important border state’s disaster relief and response mechanism and also highlighted the weaknesses inherent in India’s disaster management strategy at the larger level. The scale at which the relief and rescue operations were launched marked a paradigm shift in Indian State’s response mechanism to a natural disaster. It received unprecedented attention from the central government and the media which relayed images of devastation caused by the floods for many weeks. Unfortunately, the weaknesses in the reconstruction and rehabilitation measures initiated in the aftermath of these floods have not received the requisite attention it deserved. Also the struggle of these flood victims to seek compensation from the state leads us to an important question: should there be a rights-based paradigm to address the issue of relief and compensation to disaster victims? This chapter surveys the case of Kashmir floods and the need for laws to ensure preparedness.
