Impact of natural disasters on socio-economic development of Jammu and Kashmir

This article explores interaction between the natural disasters and socio-economic development. This study depicts the impact of natural disasters on the dwellers of Jammu and Kashmir. It also examines the resilience mechanism followed by people and measures implemented by the government in response to these natural disasters. The broad objective of this paper is to examine the various contributors of natural disasters which are related to Socio-economic development of a region. To know about the role of dynamic natural disasters on socio-economic development both offline and online available literature was examined. The analysis of available literature depicts that there are links between disasters and resource management. The cross examine geographical literature suggests that Jammu and Kashmir is a disaster prone area which is affected by multiple natural disasters like earthquakes, avalanches, floods, climate change and landslides. These destructive disasters generally affect the different spheres of life and particularly the socio-economic development of a region. In order to diminish the disaster risk, the disaster risk reduction and management system, infrastructure and early warning system need to be strengthened. The need of the time is to develop the technology in such a manner to understand and cope the climate. The government should form an agenda that will help to reduce the frequency of natural disasters by implementing development policies and strategies to reduce the people’s vulnerability. Government should design a sustainable development policy to meet the urgent needs as well as minimize the long term negative consequences of disasters. The analysis conclude that natural disasters have diverse socio-economic impacts depending on nature, intensity and type of disaster.