National Civil Defence College, Nagpur

The National Civil Defence College was founded on 29th April 1957 at Nagpur as the Central Emergency Relief Training Institute (CERTI) to function as the training wing of the Emergency Relief Organisation of the Government of India. This Central Institute concentrated on advanced and specialist training to the leaders of relief services which was essential for efficient conduct of Relief operations during natural disasters.

The two war emergencies faced by the country in 1962 and 1965 compelled the Government of India to reorient it's emergency training activities from natural disasters to those concerning protection of life and property against enemy actions. This college was renamed as National Civil Defence College with the passing of Civil Defence Act 1968 by the Parliament.

The devastating Andhra Pradesh cyclone in 1978 brought the requirements of preparing emergency relief personnel back to the door-step of this Institution. Disaster relief courses aimed at preparing response personnel to provide services in the field of search and rescue, first-aid, communications, welfare services, etc., are being organised till date. It is the only institute in the country shouldering the responsibility of training Disaster Response Managers since 1978.

This college is the only one of its kind in the South-East Asia and is catalogued in the UNDHA centers of Disaster Relief training. It has also been identified as a premier training establishment in Chemical Disasters by the Ministry of Environment & Forests. The NCDC has been selected as one of the advanced training center in India on Search & Rescue by Office of the Federal Disaster Agency (OFDA) of USA and Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) Bangkok.

The college has been recognized as a nodal training institute for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Emergencies training by the Ministry of Home Affairs, in the year 2002.

Since inception of the college in 1957 the college has trained nearly 38,378 personnel up to 28th February 2005 which includes 8 foreign nationals.