The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is a specialized institution and a dedicated force in India for responding to natural and man-made disasters, operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The force was formally constituted on January 19, 2006, following the enactment of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Its creation was a pivotal step to strengthen disaster management capabilities, driven by the realization that a specialized response was needed after major calamities like the Gujarat Earthquake (2001) and the 2004 tsunami.
The legal foundation for the force is laid out in Section 44 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The NDRF is currently composed of 16 battalions drawn on deputation from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), including the BSF, CRPF, and ITBP. Its operational mechanism emphasizes "proactive availability" and "pre-positioning" of resources during imminent disaster situations to minimize response time.
The NDRF is an operational arm of the broader disaster-governance framework led by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). A significant change occurred with the notification of NDRF Rules on February 14, 2008, which transformed the force from one with routine law and order duties into a dedicated disaster response entity under the unified command of the Director General. The force has also expanded from its initial 8 battalions to the current 16 battalions. Furthermore, the recent Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025, mandates that every state and union territory must have a specialized State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), which is modeled on the NDRF.