In the last two decades, coastal regions have relatively endured some of the fiercest oceanic and geophysical disasters than the earlier decades. Yet, disaster management governance fails to match the human, nonhuman and environmental calamity which is unfolding in its most frequent and unpredictable pattern. Between the Asian Tsunami of 2004 to the devastating Chennai and Kerala floods of 2018 the socio-industrial-livelihood impact alerts governments towards a greater and more serious compliance to laws for coastal conservation. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in 2018 had shocking statistics to share as the deaths and damages related to only Tsunami disaster at the coasts to 251,770 and US$280 billions respectively in the last 20 years (1998-2017) as compared to 998 and US$ 2.7 billion in the previous 20 years (1978-1997). Coastal conservation is no more a question of casual governance but has become a need for survival. The region of South Asia which ranks much higher in its vulnerability, weak resilience and relatively undersupplied governance structures ought to take this responsibility on a priority. The spirit of Hyogu Declaration and the Sendai Framework for Action suggests preparedness and resilience building as key approach areas in coastal governance.
The book is incomparable in its holistic and transdisciplinary social science based approach to disaster management which links conservation of marine flora and fauna, ecosystems and land management with decision making processes and coastal regulations. These grass root findings from the subcontinent are substantiated by a section on the most powerful court battle on the Kerala Floods as a guideline for readers to discerningly identify an ‘Act of God’ often used as a veil to hide lack of preparedness, apathy and political greed. This book becomes indispensable reading for anyone involved in research, administration or any level of decision making for the mitigation and prevention of disasters.
Amita Singh, Professor at the Special Centre for Law and Governance and Founding Chairperson, Special Centre for Disaster Research, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India.
Professor Singh teaches Law and Governance at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at JNU. She has been the longest serving Secretary General of NAPSIPAG (Network of Asia Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance) initiated by ADB 2004 at INTAN Malaysia. She is Member Secretary of the Institutional Ethics Review Board and Member of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research, Delhi. She has a wide research experience of evaluating best governance practices and working with the government (DARPG, India) and the Global Innovators Network, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She was awarded the Australia-India Council Fellowship (2006-2007) for academic research in nine Australian Universities and was again awarded the Australian Monash Fellowship in 2017. She has been closely associated with the International Womens’ Association at Hunter College SUNY USA in 1990 to prepare for the Beijing Declaration in 1995. She has received the Bangladesh National Award of ‘Nawab Bhadur Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury National Award’ 2014 for women empowerment. Professor Singh is an ardent activist of the ‘Rights of Nonhuman Species’.
R. Lalitha S. Fernando serves as a Professor in Public Administration, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka. She was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Academic (internal) Scholarship to pursue Postgraduate Diploma in Development Studies leading to Masters in Development Administration and Management at the University of Manchester, U.K for the period of 1990 to 1992. She obtained a fulltime Scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public Administration, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Bangkok, Thailand for the period of 1999 to 2003. She has published a number of papers related to public management and governance in both national and international journals.
Nivedita P. Haran, Indian Administrative Service (Rtd.), Former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala who spearheaded the first Kerala State Disaster Management Authority.
Dr. Haran, a post-graduate in Philosophy from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India in 1976 in I Class and a PhD in Sociology from IIT, Delhi on the topic Bureaucracy in India was selected to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1980. She has more than three decades of rich professional experience with the IAS in India and in the state of Kerala where she served in several senior positions of leadership and decision making. She held crucially important positions as a District Planning Officer, as a Head of Revenue Administration, Land Administration, Land Records Management, Renewable Energy in Public Offices, coping Climate Change Strategies, and post-Tsunami Rehabilitation project. She also held the position of Deputy Secretary in the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Government of India, New Delhi. As the Home Secretary, she brought some meaningful innovations such as the digitization of police records, simplification of procedures, bringing transparency and accountability through the use of new cost-effective technological innovations such as Video Conferencing and other ICT applications. She has also been the Director of The Centre for Innovations in Public Systems at Hyderabad. Her most passionate project with the NAPSIPAG (Network of Asia Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance, JNU) was the creation of NYSAF (Network of Young Scholars and Administrators Forum) by bringing academic research closer to administrators and enable them to work together for the country’s development.
