India loses nearly $18 billion to disasters - UN Expert

J. Radhakrishnan, head of UNDP India's Disaster Management wing, told IANS that India is paying a high price for its lack of disaster management practices, "Though India has been losing property and crops worth Rs.86,000 crore annually for the past few years due to the various types of disasters, mitigation and disaster management are extremely inadequate in the country," as reported by the Times of India. He calls for conventional construction methods to be avoided to make buildings safer and for the national building code to be followed during construction to ensure safety from earthquakes.