UPSDMA AND CENTRAL COMMAND OF INDIAN ARMY ORGANISES NATIONAL CIVIL-MILITARY SYMPOSIUM ON FLOOD AND FLOOD RELATED DISASTER MANAGEMENT AHEAD OF MONSOON 2026.

                       HTN Live

Report by journalist Kiyara Sharma

LUCKNOW, 05 JUNE 2026 Uttar Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (UPSDMA), in coordination with the Headquarters Central Command, Indian Army, Lucknow organized a National Level Civil-Military Symposium on “Flood and Flood Related Disasters” on 05 June 2026 at Surya Auditorium, in Lucknow Cantonment.

The multi-stakeholder event brought together key stakeholders from the disaster management ecosystem, including early warning agencies, response forces, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) and senior civil and military leadership. Representatives from the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, and Madhya Pradesh participated in the deliberations.

Addressing the gathering, Chief Guest Hon’ble Minister Jal Shakti & Flood Relief of Uttar Pradesh Shri Swatantra Dev Singh, highlighted the importance of preparedness, institutional coordination, community resilience, and leadership in disaster management. The event was attended by Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta, GOC-in-C, Central Command; Lt Gen Yogendra Dimri (Retd.), Vice-Chairperson, UPSDMA; Dr. Uday Kant Misra, Vice Chairperson, BSDMA; Smt. Aparna U., Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh; and Dr. Rishikesh Bhaskar Yashod, ACEO UPSDMA and Relief Commissioner, along with senior civil, military and disaster management officials.

Organized ahead of the forthcoming monsoon season, the Symposium served as an important platform for strengthening preparedness and enhancing coordination among stakeholders responsible for flood risk reduction, early warning dissemination, emergency response, and recovery. The deliberations highlighted the emerging challenges associated with climate variability and climate change, including extreme rainfall events, flash floods, urban flooding, cloudbursts, landslides, and lightning incidents.

The Symposium emphasized the importance of a Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Society approach for effective disaster risk management. Participants highlighted the need for continuous collaboration, institutional learning, technology adoption, and sharing of best practices to strengthen disaster resilience and minimize the impact of flood-related disasters.

The Symposium witnessed senior representatives from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Central Water Commission (CWC), National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Flood Management Information & Surveillance Centre (FMISC) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) present the latest advancements in flood forecasting, weather monitoring, satellite-based surveillance, lightning prediction, impact-based forecasting, Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), and SACHET-based warning dissemination systems.

Response agencies including the Indian Army, Indian Air Force, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Uttar Pradesh Police/PAC (Flood), Uttar Pradesh Fire & Emergency Services and Indian Railways shared their operational experiences, response mechanisms, and preparedness frameworks for managing flood and flood-related emergencies.

State Disaster Management Authorities from The four flood-prone northern states of Uttarakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh presented their experiences, lessons learnt, best practices, and innovations in flood preparedness, mitigation, early warning dissemination, community awareness, and emergency response. The presentations focused on state-specific flood management strategies, community preparedness initiatives, technology driven interventions, and inter-agency coordination mechanisms adopted during recent flood events.

The Symposium provided an important platform to understand the roles and responsibilities of key disaster management agencies and stakeholders, while facilitating knowledge-sharing on emerging trends, best practices, and technological advancements in flood disaster management. The deliberations focused on contemporary flood and flood-related disaster challenges across the participating states and focused on disaster vulnerabilities, leveraging technology in disaster management, economic costs of natural disasters in India, incident response systems and lessons learnt from previous disaster events.

The Symposium emerged as a significant forum for knowledge exchange, capacity building, strategic planning, and strengthening civil-military coordination in disaster management. It enabled stakeholders to collaborate closely, share operational experiences and enhance preparedness for effective response during emergencies. By addressing the growing vulnerabilities associated with climate change and extreme weather events, the Symposium marked an important step towards building a more resilient, coordinated, and responsive disaster management framework in India.

Key Outcomes of the Symposium: -

• Strengthened civil-military coordination for flood preparedness and emergency response.

• Enhanced collaboration among early warning agencies, response forces and State Disaster Management Authorities.

• Exchange of best practices and operational experiences among five flood- prone states.

• Promotion of technology-enabled flood forecasting, monitoring, and warning dissemination systems.

• Reinforcement of anticipatory action, community preparedness, and integrated response mechanisms ahead of Monsoon 2026.

The Symposium concluded with a shared commitment to strengthen inter-agency coordination, improve early warning dissemination, leveraging emerging technologies, enhance community preparedness, and institutionalize knowledge-sharing mechanisms for building a more resilient and disaster-ready India.