Love the nature and live in harmony with it: Venkaiah Naidu

“Love the nature and live in harmony with it,” should be the mantra of every individual, said Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu here on Tuesday.

Addressing a meeting after laying the foundation stone for the southern campus of the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) at Kondapavuluru village under Gannavaram mandal of Krishna district, Mr. Naidu said climate change was the biggest challenge for the governments across the world today with deterioration of natural resources as a direct result of the greed of mankind.He said Andhra Pradesh, with a long coastline, was prone to natural disasters such as cyclone. India itself, he said, was prone to cyclone, tsunami, and earthquake as nearly 59 % of the Indian soil was prone to disasters.

“Keeping this in mind, we should focus on mitigation measures,” he said.Pointing to the fact that temperatures had been soaring due to growing industrialisation, he said, “Our efforts should be aimed at minimising the loss at the time of natural disasters.”

He suggested liberal use of technology to create awareness among people, and said people’s participation was vital to mitigate suffering in the aftermath of a disaster since the governments alone could not handle everything.He said the Andhra Pradesh Government and officials were well experienced in efficiently handling disasters, and cited the example of Hudhud cyclone in Visakhapatnam, after which the city bounced back to normal within no time.

“Officials of this State have good understanding on the subject,” he added.Mr. Naidu said, in the next 4-5 years, a number of Central government instituttions such as Ayush wing, Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Amaravati University of Medical Centre, and Skill Development Centre would come up in the surrounding areas of over 400 acres of land.The State government has allotted 10 acres for establishing a permanent campus for the NIDM to be constructed at a cost of ?36.76 crore.

The focus of this centre would be on ground-level issues, district and local planning, last mile connectivity, and mainstreaming disaster management into sustainable development goals through its training and capacity-building programmes. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, A.P. Law Minister Kollu Ravindra, and a host of Central and State government officials were present.