Notified Calamity vs Local Disaster

India's disaster relief funding, disbursed through the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF, Section 48 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005) and the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF, Section 46), operates against a national list of 'notified calamities.' A hazard on this list, historically cyclone, drought, earthquake, flood, tsunami, avalanche, cloudburst, landslide, hailstorm, fire, frost and cold wave, and pest attack, attracts relief funding as of right, treated as a first charge on the relevant fund whenever it strikes. A hazard not on the notified list can still receive some state support, but only through the separate, much more constrained category of a 'local disaster': a state may declare a hazard specific to its own local context as a local disaster and fund relief for it, but only out of a capped discretionary window, up to 10 per cent of its annual SDRF allocation, that must also cover every other locally declared disaster the state faces that year. This structural gap means a hazard that is genuinely severe but not nationally notified competes for a small, shared, discretionary pool against politically more visible notified-list events, rather than drawing on dedicated first-charge funding. On 4 August 2026, following a recommendation of the Sixteenth Finance Commission, heatwave and lightning were added to the notified list, taking it from 12 to 14 items, moving heat-relief spending out of the 10 per cent discretionary window into first-charge status. The distinction remains examinable because it explains why a state's ability to respond to an emerging or slow-onset hazard, such as bank erosion, urban flooding, or a novel disease outbreak, that has not yet been formally notified is structurally weaker than its response to an established, listed hazard, regardless of the actual severity of the harm.

• 1 Notified calamity: on the national list, attracts SDRF/NDRF assistance 'as of right' as a first charge on the fund.
• 2 Local disaster: a hazard a state declares within its own jurisdiction, fundable only from a capped 10 per cent window of its annual SDRF allocation.
• 3 The 10 per cent local-disaster window must cover ALL locally declared disasters a state faces in a year, not just one hazard.
• 4 The notified list expanded from 12 to 14 on 4 August 2026, adding heatwave and lightning, on the Sixteenth Finance Commission's recommendation.
• 5 A hazard not yet on the notified list (e.g. bank erosion in Assam, which has caused more cumulative land loss than any single notified calamity) receives structurally weaker funding regardless of its actual severity.
• 6 The Finance Commission (not a ministry circular) is the body whose recommendation typically triggers additions to the notified list, since it also sets the size of the SDRF corpus.
• 7 SDRF is financed 75 per cent by the Centre for general states and 90 per cent for North-Eastern and Himalayan states; NDRF is wholly Central.

Before 4 August 2026, a state wanting to fund heatwave relief had to draw from its capped 10 per cent local-disaster window, competing with every other locally declared hazard that year; notification moved heat and lightning into first-charge SDRF/NDRF status instead.