A for Alert, B for Bunker: How Maharashtra’s school kids are learning disaster ABCs
It began as an alphabet a disaster management officer made for his toddler. Now it's in government classrooms across Maharashtra, teaching children words like evacuation and tsunami warning.
For children in several government schools in Maharashtra, the alphabet no longer stops at Apple, Ball and Cat. A colourful classroom chart begins with A for Alert, B for Bunker and C for Cyclone, and introduces terms such as evacuation, mitigation, search and rescue, and tsunami early warning systems.
The chart was developed by Palghar District Disaster Management Officer Vivekanand Kadam to make disaster preparedness familiar to children through simple words, repetition and visual learning.
The idea took shape in 2024, when Kadam began thinking about the impact of climate change and disasters over the next two to three decades. He first made the alphabet for his toddler, Vedansh, and later expanded it into a school learning tool. It was formally launched on July 26, 2025, Kargil Vijay Diwas.
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What the alphabet teaches
Each letter pairs a term with a short explanation. Some cover natural hazards: F for Flood, L for Landslide, G for Glacier Melting and Z for Seismic Zone, which explains that regions differ in their vulnerability to earthquakes. E for Environmental Degradation links damage to forests, soil and water to higher disaster risk.
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