• Dr. Nilesh Jha

A hazard becomes disaster only when it causes loss of human life and damage to property. In order to reduce the impact of such events through mitigation efforts it is necessary to understand how such hazards become disaster. Ports are the backbone of the Indian economy and in this era of globalization act as gateways of foreign transactions. Ports are focal points of convergence for several contending and competing business interests namely, shipping lines, port authorities, individual terminal operators to freight forwarders, inland logistics agencies and shippers whose cargo is being transported. The objective of the work is to study the direct, indirect and secondary damages to ports due to natural disasters and to develop the mitigation strategies. The scope of the work is restricted to the major port of Kandla and minor ports of Porbandar and Navlakhi. Moreover the impacts of natural disaster like cyclone and earthquake is only taken into consideration for the study purpose. Economic loss in Japan after the Kobe earthquake was exclusively due the loss of business and diversion of the cargos handled on Kobe port. Data collection and analysis for the work reveals that when any port is hit by natural disaster, it is always followed by direct losses due to the structural failures and loss of cargos, indirect losses due to the non-functioning of the ports and secondary losses due to its impact on the economic growth and increase in the fiscal deficit. Developing countries like India had been ‘reactive’ in its approach towards disasters – with precious resources being spent on relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts but after the Bhuj earthquake the focus has shifted to a balanced approach including pre-disaster aspects such as disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness. Developing countries like India shall move away from relief-centric approach to a pro-active assault on vulnerabilities through risk management measures and capacity building of industrial personnel.

Ports1, Disaster2, Mitigation3

"Mitigation Strategies to be adopted for Hazards on Ports: Case Study of Gujarat", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 11, page no.1346-1354, November-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2002195.pdf

"Mitigation Strategies to be adopted for Hazards on Ports: Case Study of Gujarat", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 11, page no. pp1346-1354, November-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2002195.pdf