Dhaka, Sept. 16 -- Disaster Management and Relief Adviser Faruk E Azam, Bir Protik, today said that mitigation is more important than response in disaster management. He made this remark while addressing as the chief guest at the 3rd National Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center in the capital's Agargaon this morning.

Highlighting Bangladesh's longstanding vulnerability to natural disasters, the adviser referred to the devastating Bhola Cyclone of November 13, 1970. Widely recognized as one of the deadliest calamities in recorded history, the cyclone claimed nearly half a million lives and left a profound scar on the nation's collective memory, he said.

The people of then East Pak...