Long Term Disaster Recovery in Kashmir

This issue of Southasiadisasters.net is titled "Long Term Disaster Recovery in Kashmir". It contains many insights from practitioners and academics from different areas who have focused their attention on rebuilding Jammu and Kashmir after the devastating floods of 2014. Often dubbed as the most severe flood to hit the state in over 100 years, the havoc wreaked by these floods affected close to 550,000 people. The Indian state as well as the international community were quick to respond to the crisis that followed this disaster. Devoting massive financial and human resources, many long term recovery initiatives have been started in the state. This issue is a compilation of such initiatives that capture the many facets of Kashmir's complex long term recovery process to "Build Back Better".

Disguised opportunity is the inevitable concomitant of any disaster. The unprecedented flooding experienced by the North Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir was one such event where widespread destruction gave way to great opportunities for recovery and reconstruction. After the promulgation of the Sendai Framework and India's own National Disaster management Plan (NDMP) there has been an onus on the "Build back Better" aspect of disaster recovery. The recovery experience following the 2014 Kashmir floods offers many lessons for such a long term recovery.

This issue's contents includes: (i) Disaster Recovery in Kashmir: Five Lessons for Himalayan States of India; (ii) How Kashmir is Implementing Disaster Risk Reduction Projects; (iii) Kashmir Recovery: A Habitat View; (iv) Lessons from Jammu and Kashmir Earthquake and Floods; (v) Pattan in Kashmir Recovery: Sectarian and Political Biases weakened Community Cohesion; (vi) Community Involvement and Leadership by Women; (vii) Kashmir Flood Recovery: Achievements of NDMA; (viii) DRR Road Map for Himalayas; (ix) Long Term Disaster Recovery in Kashmir; and (x) Srinagar Flood Recovery — What Worked And Why?