DISAST MANAGEMENT: ROLE OF INDIAN ARMED FORCES IN DEALING WITH DISASTERS IN THE COASTAL REGIONS OF INDIASYNOPSISIntroduction1. A natural disaster is a natural event that causes a sudden disruption of the normal life of a society and causes damage to property and human lives to such an extent that the normal social and economic mechanisms available to the society are inadequate to restore normalcy . India has faced a number of disasters in recent years, including earthquakes, floods, droughts, cyclones and other ocean disasters. Floods and coastal disasters have been the largest and most recurring phenomena in the recent past, be it floods in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Mumbai and Chennai, tsunami of 2004 or the recent cyclone Hudhud.2. These disasters have led to enormous losses of lives, property and infrastructure. After battling such disasters for a long time in a disorganized manner, mainly using the services of the Indian Armed Forces, India finally passed the National Disaster Management Act in 2005. 3. India has 7,516 kilometers of coastline , of which about 5,700 kilometers are prone to disasters. cyclones, tsunamis and other disasters emanating from the sea/ocean. Over the last 50 years, India has lost around 30,000 lives because of this alone. The literature on disaster management in India by and large focuses on case studies of specific disaster events and types. Much has been written and discussed about disaster management in various forms of literature such as books, Internet, journals, articles and documents. However, most research has focused on either earthquakes or floods, and only limited research on coastal disasters and the role of the armed forces in handling such crises has yet been conducted. A limited number of published materials on the subject are available at DSSC, so the majority of references come from websites that contain a large amount of information. Study material is collected from the following organizations