Sri Vijaya Puram, 20 May, Andaman’s disaster planners have shrunk calamity response into a pocket-size booklet laced with QR codes that launch helpline numbers, Google-map directions to shelters and short training videos, all aimed at ensuring islanders never lose critical information when the earth shakes or the sea climbs. Chief secretary Chandra Bhushan Kumar rolled out the District Disaster Pocket Guide for South Andaman via videoconference and, in the same session, switched on a new e-Corner at Little Andaman Tehsil to connect residents with online public services.
The twin launches illustrate the administration’s bet that bite-sized digital tools can overcome both geography and bandwidth gaps. The pocket guide, available as laminated card sets in panchayat offices and a downloadable PDF, uses iconography over text to reach multilingual audiences. Flip-out panels list cyclone siren meanings, evacuation points, vulnerable lowlands and emergency contact trees. Scanning a QR sends users straight to the control-room hotline or opens a YouTube clip teaching first-aid knots.
Disaster-management officials spent six months field-testing the design in schools and self-help groups, tweaking icons after feedback that a stylised wave looked too much like a hill, or that a red-flash symbol resembled a roadblock. The final version mirrors tactics used in Japan’s quake zones: intuitive, colour-coded layouts that survive wet pockets and low-light panic.
While the guide is South Andaman-branded, Kumar said neighbouring districts can adapt it by swapping QR destinations and shelter co-ordinates. The format’s modular backbone means future hazards, oil-spill procedures, pandemic checkpoints, can be slotted in without reprinting the whole booklet.
If the pocket guide is about milliseconds, the e-Corner at Little Andaman is about miles. Residents of Hut Bay and surrounding panchayats often pay boat fares just to file land-record or pension applications in Sri Vijaya Puram. The e-Corner stations a bank of tablets, printers and biometric scanners inside the Tehsil office, staffed by two trained operators. Services range from Aadhaar updates and birth certificates to labour-card renewals and scholarship portals. Transactions are logged on e-District servers, and receipts print in seconds.
Launching the node remotely, Kumar told local PRI members that uptime would be monitored centrally; any downtime alerts technicians in Sri Vijaya Puram. PRI representatives thanked the administration, pointing out that cyclone Nivar’s ferry cancellations left islanders unable to submit scholarship forms before deadlines, an episode the e-Corner should prevent.
Officials believe the pocket guide will dovetail with ongoing school-safety audits. Teachers can fold the cards into morning assemblies, scanning QR links to show pupils animated drills. Panchayat trainers will carry laminated copies during door-to-door cyclone-season campaigns. Print costs came in at under ₹12 a copy thanks to bulk inkless printing, while digital distribution is free.
As for the e-Corner, district IT staff will analyse transaction data to decide which remote panchayat gets the next kiosk. Metrics such as average footfall, most-requested certificate and downtime frequency will feed into the expansion blueprint. The long-term plan includes solar-backed power and 4G boosters to insulate nodes from monsoon outages.
These measures respond to lessons from past disasters. During the 2004 tsunami and the 2020 cyclone chain, relief teams lost time copying phone numbers off noticeboards or relaying paper lists across radio chatter. Pocket guides short-circuit that friction. Likewise, pandemic curbs exposed the digital gulf between mainland offices and island interiors. The e-Corner plugs that gap, one Tehsil at a time.
Neither tool replaces physical infrastructure, safe shelters, all-weather bridges, broadband fibre, but officials argue they squeeze more value out of existing assets. A QR code that dials the control room is useless if the tower is down, but it still beats rummaging for a crumpled leaflet when every second counts.
For now, district officials will measure success by adoption rather than glossy launches. The guide’s QR analytics will show how many scans translate into helpline calls or video plays. The e-Corner’s dashboard will log user satisfaction surveys. Early figures should be available by Independence Day, when the administration reviews disaster readiness.
In monsoon-shadowed islands where response time can spell the difference between inconvenience and catastrophe, fitting preparedness into a pocket and governance into a village kiosk may prove the practical upgrade.
