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Natural disaster incidence has become a frequent phenomenon throughout the world that can affect anyone, anywhere, anytime. Every year more than 200 million people are affected by flood, drought, earthquake, wild fire, cyclones and other hazards. The trends in recent decades show an increase in number of natural hazards and an increase in the number of affected populations, since more and more people are becoming vulnerable to disaster of all type. The world disaster report reveals that from 1994 to 98 average disasters per year were 428 whereas from 1999 to 2003 it is 707 a year. P.M. Siromony (2006) opined that there is a direct correlation between higher human development and higher preparedness as the countries which have lesser human development face maximum disaster and the maximum damage. The types of natural hazards that trigger the disasters differ from the unexpected occurrence of earthquake to more predictable seasonal floods and periodic cyclones and storms. Among the natural disaster floods are the most common and frequent in number of countries; India, China and Bangladesh to be named few. Amongst all the continents, Asia is one of the most disaster prone regions in the world. ‘The annual average no. of people killed (40,000); affected, made homeless and injured by disasters (150 million) indicate the urgency for implementation of disaster prevention, mitigation, and preparedness measures. As per UNDP report, around 80 per cent of India’s geographical area is vulnerable to cyclones, floods, landslides, drought, earthquakes as well as other localized hazards, mainly because of its geographical location and its geological formations. India with 2% of the world land area has to support around 16% of the human population and a large no of cattle population heavily depend on forest area.

Table 1: Disaster Types in India (Average from 1980 to 2000)

Disaster type | Disaster per Year(nb/Year) | Causalities(Killed/year) | Physical Exposure(nb/Year) |