NEW DELHI: India, which is among some of the world’s most disaster-prone nations, is gearing up for the challenge in the coming months when cyclones and floods can be expected to force the evacuation of millions of people while Covid-19 pandemic remains a threat with over 13,000 cases and 437 deaths reported so far.In a webinar, organised by the UN office for disaster risk reduction (UNDRR) on Thursday with over 1,100 participants from 91 countries, India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) underlined the need for strengthening of response mechanism to climate change-related hazards such as floods and heatwaves which every year account for more than 1,500 deaths of people across the country.The NDMA felt the need to work “doubly hard” to minimize the burden on hospitals arising from other hazards. People can be treated at the community level in primary health care centres wherever possible, NDMA member Kamal Kishore said, expressing the need for augmenting capacities of hospitals to deal with extreme weather events.With social distancing and people asked to remain at homes to avoid Covid-19 infection, the standard operating procedures for the management of cyclone shelters need to be changed, NDMA said while acknowledging the challenges it has in maintaining physical distancing during mass evacuations. Kishore suggested capacity building by identifying other facilities for use as temporary shelters during extreme weather events.The UNDRR webinar on “combatting the dual challenges of climate-related disasters and Covid-19” provided an opportunity to disaster management authorities of various countries to learn from each other’s best practices to tackle the pandemic outbreak.According to UNDRR regional chief Loretta Hieber Girardet, “a taste of what is to come has already been experienced this month by small island developing states in the Pacific where recovery efforts continue following category five Cyclone Harold which struck the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu leaving 28 dead and many thousands homeless and living in shelters.”