Capacity building in disaster management in Vaishno Devi - a successful case study from India

Hands-on training on capacity building was given in the holiest shrine in India-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi. Located in the Himalayas in the state of Jammu & Kashmirat 5,000 feet above sea-level, it has a staff of 2,300 assisted by the Central Reserve Police and Jammu & Kashmir Police.

The shrine is operational 365 days 24 hours per day. On an average day, the shrine has approximately 25-30,000 visitors and on festive days, weekends and holidays, the number rises to 45-50,000 per day.  However, the entire Himalayan range where the shrine is located is prone to natural disaster like Landslide, Forest Fire, Earthquake with additional problem of a manmade disaster due to crowd control. The present training with a people -centred approach was carried out to enhance preparedness and response of the staff across agencies.