Localized mechanism a way forward approach: A case study of covid -19 pandemic in Ladakh, India

Abstract

The importance of localized mechanisms was highly realized during the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused a global emergency. The existing mechanisms available at the international, national and state-level miserably suffered during the pandemic which increased subsequent risks in many sectors like education, health, tourism, economy, trade, supply chain and psycho-social health issues. In addition, the existing hazards are continuously occurring with their cascading implications, emphasizing a need for localized mechanisms. The present study endeavours to understand the pivotal role of localized mechanisms in emergency hazard situations. It focuses on Covid-19 as the sudden unexpected hazard in Ladakh Region, India. The impacts of the Covid-19 hazard were analyzed on different sectors with the help of the Analytical Hierarchal Process (AHP) method. The results show major impacts of Covid-19 hazard on health (0.34) followed by education (0.24), economy (0.18), trade (0.15) and psycho-social issues (0.09). The results were employed to highlight the need of localized mechanism to overcome the challenges in the existing traditional disaster management mechanism. A brief localized management mechanism has been worked out for the Covid-19 pandemic in one of the districts of Ladakh. Similarly, advanced localized mechanisms can help to deal with uncertain emergencies or sudden hazards in remote regions.

Disaster-development interface and its impact on emerging vulnerability scenario in Ladakh region of northwestern Himalayas

“…The present study focused on the importance of understanding the linkage between disasters and developments for long-term sustainable growth of the area by stressing on region-specific mitigation through vulnerability parameters for disaster proactive preparation and response. Identifying and quantifying vulnerabilities can help in better preparedness and response in case of a sudden disaster (Akbar et al 2022a). In this regard, the applied methodological approach and findings could prove vital in determining the underlying factors to establish a link between disasters, development, and increasing vulnerability scenarios.…”

“…The region has well-recorded disaster events such as earthquakes, landslides, wars (Fig. 9), and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic (Akbar et al 2022a).…”

“…Various studies have been carried out in disaster and development fields with a narrow focus on understanding the relationship between the two fields (Fordham 2007;Kapuca and Liou 2014). Some of the existing studies have covered the linkage of natural, anthropogenic, and technological aspects and the influence of the geophysical environment on hazards (Liu et al 2016;Gill and Malamud 2014;Gill 2016;Akbar et al 2022aAkbar et al , b, 2023. In other studies, disaster-induced damages and losses have been highlighted.…”