Disaster Preparedness among Fishermen in Mangalore

A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. Natural or man-made, disasters can be scary, chaotic, and tragic events. Disaster preparedness can prevent a bad situation from becoming worse. Planning ahead also helps every one understand what to do when a disaster strikes. Preparedness is a very important stage in pre disaster management stage where individual gets prepared for the worst so that he/she can mitigate the menace of it to a greater extent. Preparedness encompasses measures aimed at enhancing life safety when a disaster occurs, such as protective actions during unforeseen circumstances (Sutton, 2006). The present study is descriptive in nature which has responses of 50 fishermen employed at Mangalore Fishing Port who are selected using simple random sampling method. In the present study on disaster preparedness among the fishermen at Mangalore Fishing Port, researcher has found no preparedness measure followed which is in turn required for their life safety at sea.