Disasters whether man-made or environmental-driven play mayhem with the lives of millions of people around the globe every year. The repercussions of any disaster are suffering, devastation and casualty. To reduce the magnitude of human vulnerability to disasters, human resources will have to be trained and educated to handle the crises. This article analyzes the problems involved in managing a disaster and also throws light on the role of HRD in disaster management.

A prudent individual foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.Asudden accident or a natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life is something very noxious and depressive both psychologically as well as physiologically. The diction `Disaster' conveys tragedy, calamity or debacle. But the disasters are a part of the environment whether they are man made or natural—whether it is earthquake, Tsunami or a terror strike. Society tends to forget their devastation and horror after sometime. But the mental and physical agony sticks to the victims throughout their lives. Though we cannot predict many of the disasters, certainly we could devise management strategies to prevent them and face them without losing heart. Floods, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides, hurricanes, terror strikes or accidents have hazardous effects both in micro and macro terms. Celly and Gupta (1999) have given a beautiful description of natural disaster. They have written that it is a natural hazard, which is an event of nature, which causes sudden disruption to the normal life of a society and damage to property, to such an extent that normal, social and economic mechanisms available to the society are inadequate to restore normality. The past two decades have witnessed an extraordinary increase in the number of natural disasters. Phillips and Boulle (1999) stated that there were three times as many great natural hazards in the recent past compared to in 1960s, while disaster costs increased more than nine-fold in the same period. According to Geneva Mandate adopted at the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), we have to adopt and implement policy measures at the international, regional, national and local levels aimed at reducing the vulnerability of our societies to natural disasters. These measures should have as main objectives the establishment of hazard resistant communities, the protection of people from the threat of disasters and safeguarding of our natural and economic resources.

HRM Review Magazine, Disaster Management, Human Resources, Management Strategies, International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, IDNDR, Economic Resources, Human Resources Development, HRD, Crisis Management Skills, Organizational Learning, Financial Risks.