National Disaster Response Plan (NDRP) March 2010 - NDMA

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provide tremendous prospects for initiation of landslides. Severe monsoon rains and or
exceptional melting of Himalayan glaciers provide abundant water to cause many
landslides. Most of the landslides in Pakistan occur within the loosely packed
fluvioglacial sediments and or young soils triggered by rainstorms. Landslides are
common in the Northern Areas, Kashmir, and the Murree Hills etc. The impact of
landslides appears minimal and localized in nature but cumulative damage and loss of
life may sometime exceed many major catastrophes. The communities hit by landslide
are those who live on slopes or steep areas in the mountains or within immediate
surroundings of such steep slopes. The major impact of landslides is on housing,
livelihoods, and blocked roads. The following districts are vulnerable to landslides:-
District Province
(1) Kaghan, Naran and Chitral NWFP
(2) Bagh, Bhimber, Neelum and Muzaffarabad A J & K
(3) Astore, Diamer, Gilgit and Ghanche Gilgit-Baltistan
h. Civil Conflicts / Terrorism. There are different ethnic, linguistic, religious, sectarian
groups living in the country thus leaving room for potential threat of violence. Ethnic
violence has an impact on local population and cause loss to human lives, property
and creates insecurity for different social and marginal groups in the affected areas.
Similarly the military operation against terrorists in various parts of the country has
caused loss of property thus causing financial burden on the government.
j. Urban Fires. For the last two decades, there has been a significant migration from
rural to urban which has put a lot of pressure on the urban areas of Pakistan thereby
creating more slum areas in the cities. In addition, there is a lot of construction
activities taking place, and residents are not following building codes. Over and above,
mushrooming of unplanned CNG gas filling stations in urban areas and unauthorized
LPG gas stores are quite common. The sale of petroleum products in the residential
areas is also widespread in the cities. These practices pose major fire risk in urban
areas. While the risk of fire exists in all dwellings, the cities with more industrial units,
CNG stations/petrol Pumps, godowns are comparatively fire prone. The appended list
reflects urban centres with a pronounced vulnerability.
k. Forest Fires. Pakistan has different types of forests, ranging from Mangroves in the
south to Alpine vegetation in the north. Out of all these types, sub tropical broad leave
evergreen scrub forest and sub tropical (Chir) Pine is the most fire prone forest in
Pakistan. The Following districts are prone to forest fire:-