Agartala, July 09: The Tripura Disaster Management Authority, with technical support from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), conducted a state level mega mock exercise to assess flood and landslide preparation on Wednesday.
The exercise was spearheaded by the Revenue Department in close coordination with all District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) in the State. The Mock exercise was simultaneously carried out at 76 strategic locations which included urban and rural low-lying areas, hospitals, landslide-prone zones, and critical public infrastructure. The exercise made realistic simulations of flood and landslide scenarios such as search and rescue operations, evacuation, relief distribution, staging areas, and community involvement.
A wide spectrum of agencies actively participated in the exercise. This included members of the Incident Response System (IRS), NDRF, SDRF, Army, Assam Rifles, BSF, CRPF, line Departments, Public Sector Undertakings (ONGC, GAIL, NEEPCO, TNGCL, OTPC), Civil Defence, AapdaMitras, NGOs, and community volunteers. Their coordinated response efforts reflected a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach towards disaster resilience.
The functioning of Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs) at both State and District levels was evaluated, focusing on command, control, coordination, and communication systems. Incident Response Teams at each location activated the IRS framework to execute a structured emergency response. Observers from uniformed services monitored the exercise and provided real-time feedback. Additionally, live streaming was arranged from the simulated locations, enabling centralized monitoring and coordination.
During the exercise, State Relief Commissioner and Incident Commander Brijesh Pandey, visited the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) to review ongoing operations. He emphasized the need for continuous strengthening of the response mechanism to ensure a swift, autonomous, and effective response to real disaster situations.
A post-exercise debriefing session was held at 12:00 hrs at SEOC. District-level officials participating stakeholders shared their observations on best practices, areas needing improvement, and constructive suggestions.
The collective feedback underscored the importance of conducting such full-scale mock exercises regularly, not only for enhancing preparedness for floods and landslides but also to sensitize the public and administration for other hazards such as earthquakes.
