We should know these facts that India is a vast country having variety of geographical character as well as the natural structure; so here arrival of natural calamities in various forms is almost inevitable. Therefore, sometime we have extreme drought in some parts of the country, sometime heavy rains in some part of the country, sometime cyclone in some part of the country, sometime earthquake. We have long sea coast, so we have to be always ready for cyclone, storms and heavy rains in the coastal region. We have hilarious mountains in the northern part, so we have to be always ready for landslide, cloud burst, earthquake in the said region. We have big chains of rivers, so we must have to always ready for the seasonal floods. We are attached with Himalayas so we have variety of seismic zone, so we should be always ready for quakes. As per a rough estimate, about 60 percent of our landmass of the country is prone to quake. Around 40 Million hectare land comes in flood zone and around 8 percent land is susceptible to the cyclones. About 68 percent land is very much under drought prone means it does not have irrigation network. Overall our 3 crore population is ill-fated to face various kind of calamities every year in the country.
But, when we talk about pre preparation for all kind of disasters it includes not only the natural calamities, but also various kinds of manmade disasters also or say development oriented disasters. But back to back turmoil in Uttarakhand and Kashmir has given a great jolt to the country, which has taken thousand of lives, spoiled the billion rupee worth of assets, ruined the infrastructure and consumed the heavy amount over the relief and rehabilitation operations. Natural disasters are not our control, but the environmental decisions are definitely in our hand. What we witnessed in Uttarakhand, the construction over the embankment of the rivers proved very destructive and same story was repeated in Kashmir, where also the construction over the river Jhelum side proved fatal for the disaster.
Man made disaster is completely the responsibility of ours and our system.
For example Bhopal gas leak event which occurred in 1984 was in a way manmade disaster. The Union Carbide insecticide plant was installed in the residential area of city and leakages of MIC gas there in the plant took thousands of lives and generations of agony for the humanity.
At micro level, on day to day basis what we see, we have road-rail-air accidents, fire burning accidents, terrorist and naxal attacks etc. Talking about manmade disasters, we face various types of epidemics and mosquito- born diseases in form of cholera, dengue, chickengunia, plague, pneumonic diseases etc. So in all we will have to prepare a pre plan to face all kind of natural and manmade disasters.
For all these mis happenings, we need all alert 24 hour disaster control mechanism. A mechanism instituted on all level of governance whether at central level, state level, local administration level and also on private sector and NGO sector level. Generally we need a group of all disaster management professionals including anti bomb squads, fire fighters, swimmers, army persons, police persons, doctors, engineers etc. For this we need a very broad structure to meet out all problems arising out of disasters whether of any kinds.
In year 2004 India faced tsunami waves in its southern and south east coastal part. Latter on it was realized that if we have had pre warning tsunami devices we could have protected thousands of lives and their assets. Because the tsunami waves which came in year 2004 had epicenter in Indonesia and it took around 45 mnts time to come across south India. In the meantime if the pre warning devices had been there, many lives could have been protected. Now India has such device, but it was availed only after major tragedy took place in the country.
We say that smart and wise functioning of meteorological dept. can warn the upcoming havoc and tragedy well before. In Uttarakhand case, even Met. department confessed this fact that they could not forecast the event in an emphatic manner. But in Kashmir, the Met dept, very much warned about heavy rain well in advance, but the administration was not used to this kind of calamity in last 50 years and so was in drowsy mood even after the warning.
Talking about quake, we already know the seismic sensitivity of different regions of the country; the whole countries have been divided on the basis of various category of seismic zone. Normally the quake event mostly affects the buildings and constructions. The building which are very old and one which have not been constructed after following the quake proof technology; they are affected most with quake events. So the preparation on such kind of disasters requires strict formulation of quake proof building technology.
When we talk about country specific disasters, we should adopt anti disasters measures accordingly. It is true that to avert the effects of disaster and to operate the post disaster operation, there requires huge amount of resources, manpower and technology. The countries which have lack of resources or having poor economy, they lack in relief operation also. But the general trend is that in the circumstances of disaster and calamities, the whole world and international organizations get united and they give donation and other help to the needy country in magnanimous manner. Only thing is that how smart a country operates the pre and post disaster operations with the help of modern anti disaster technology and training.
Some people quote the famous example of Malthus, who had said the over population of a country or a region get controlled by nature in form of various disasters, so country or human should check their population through preventive or natural checks. But, when we talk about disaster, we cannot relate this issue with the issue of population control only. Disaster could happen even in low density population area also, it require its proper handling .America is the richest as well as wisest country of world, but in last 2-3 years America has also witnessed numbers of disasters in form of storms from sandy storm to katerina storm etc. Ultimately all country whether poor or rich, prone or remote to disaster, they should be always ready to arrange the pre disaster as well as post disaster preparedness in their respective zone
We know we have variety of disasters in terms of drought, flood, cyclone, storms, tsunami, earthquake, landslide, cloud burst, toofans, epidemics, and manmade events like terrorist event, mass killings by criminals and naxals, accidents (road, railway, air) and fire burnings etc. And these all disasters demand separate and different preparation. I think these preparations should be started first through mass awareness about different preventive measures for different disasters events. We have an institution like NIDM(National institute of disaster management) which studies the various technicalities attached with disasters. We should brought our all school, colleges, offices and all public institutions under mass awareness about all possible disasters in the country and region in particular.
Second part of pre preparation of disasters must be the adopting strict norms about quake proof buildings, constructions. Third, we should have a strong sense of road and traffic management. Our rail and air traffic management must be provided with highest degree of security element. If we talk about epidemics, we should have high degree of pre management about cleanliness and all. For meeting out fire and house burning we already have good network of fire fighting departments. The only thing lacks, that is alertness.
Talking about pre preparation about disasters, we should take the issue of this recent uttarkhand and Kashmir disaster in a very serious way. As of now there was tug of war between develop mentalist and environmentalist. Sometime we perceived that environmentalists' motive is to only create hurdle before the way of development. We used to say that environmentalists don't consider the scientific and technological aspect of development and they straightforwadingly condemns the various development project whether it is dams or river valley project or cutting of jungles for the establishing rail, roads etc. Untill now we considered that environmentalists are insane and they do everything on the basis of perception not on the basis of science and technology meant for development. But the Uttarkhand's tragedy episode has clearly proved that environmentalist concern were right, because the developmentalists do not take project just according to the development need of the people, rather according to the greed of some vested interest groups.
The government prepares programs like dams and river valley project just to garner the public money. I always feel that money spent over water whether for irrigation canal or river barrage or dams, it actually goes into the water. Water is a free gift of nature in form of river, sea and reservoirs. Actually we do not understand when we try to construct dams; we try to control the almighty nature. It is true that with the help of technology and resource, we become able to do things in wayward manner, but the question is ultimately does it last? We commit wrong not only on ecological terms, but we also do wrong in economic terms. To my mind construction of dam is a shier misuse of public money. The law of economics says the output should be always ahead of its cost, otherwise project cannot be made sustainable. So the construction of dams is neither viable in economic terms nor sustainable in ecological terms.
Construction of dams and any construction is not a need of development, rather the greed of planners and engineers who spent huge amount of public money to siphon out the money in to their pocket. In the same way the neo corrupt and neo rich builders lobby, who have erected row of building on the bank of various rivers over Uttarakhand and many other states,without studying the composition of soil and rock, they not only destroyed the ecology there, rather they are responsible for the annihilation of humanity. The result is before us.
The coast of river could not tolerate the speed of water and as a consequence, thousands of building, cars and life flown away into the rivers. It is not a development; it is actually commercialization and greed of business which brought builders there. Science and technology is for the sake of humanity and its development, it is not for the sake of annihilation of humanity. But the modern path of development have taken science and technologies under its clutches and just use it or misuse it for the sake of commerce and business profit; that is why we allow construction of dams, buildings in the hilly region. It is actually insanity on the part of developmentalist and planners who are doing such kind of things.
We know in plains area we can do some unavoidable developmental work at the cost of environment. For example we construct roads, railways line and bridges after cutting some trees, but it could be re maintained by plantation and aforestation. But we cannot make the bank of rivers coming under the hilly region as strong after making construction there.
In conclusion, both the pre and post disaster management require four cornered stragegy. First legislation and regulatory, second is bringing institutional coordination between all direct and indirect disaster management agencies, third is to make alert the anti disaster professionals like meterologists, disaster scientist, Army, police, firefighters, Doctors, swimmers etc. and fourth is to avail sufficient numbers of disaster management equipments like ambulence(Road, air, water), moving trauma hospitals, Hellicopter, accidents trains, artificial housing materials and food & shelter items on demand.
Now the time has come when we should go for that kind of policy which can allow developmental activities only within the periphery of sustainable environment and second for the country this is high time to start a national campaign for both kind of pre and post preparation for all kind of disasters at the optimum level.
But, when we talk about pre preparation for all kind of disasters it includes not only the natural calamities, but also various kinds of manmade disasters also or say development oriented disasters. But back to back turmoil in Uttarakhand and Kashmir has given a great jolt to the country, which has taken thousand of lives, spoiled the billion rupee worth of assets, ruined the infrastructure and consumed the heavy amount over the relief and rehabilitation operations. Natural disasters are not our control, but the environmental decisions are definitely in our hand. What we witnessed in Uttarakhand, the construction over the embankment of the rivers proved very destructive and same story was repeated in Kashmir, where also the construction over the river Jhelum side proved fatal for the disaster.
Man made disaster is completely the responsibility of ours and our system.
For example Bhopal gas leak event which occurred in 1984 was in a way manmade disaster. The Union Carbide insecticide plant was installed in the residential area of city and leakages of MIC gas there in the plant took thousands of lives and generations of agony for the humanity.
At micro level, on day to day basis what we see, we have road-rail-air accidents, fire burning accidents, terrorist and naxal attacks etc. Talking about manmade disasters, we face various types of epidemics and mosquito- born diseases in form of cholera, dengue, chickengunia, plague, pneumonic diseases etc. So in all we will have to prepare a pre plan to face all kind of natural and manmade disasters.
For all these mis happenings, we need all alert 24 hour disaster control mechanism. A mechanism instituted on all level of governance whether at central level, state level, local administration level and also on private sector and NGO sector level. Generally we need a group of all disaster management professionals including anti bomb squads, fire fighters, swimmers, army persons, police persons, doctors, engineers etc. For this we need a very broad structure to meet out all problems arising out of disasters whether of any kinds.
In year 2004 India faced tsunami waves in its southern and south east coastal part. Latter on it was realized that if we have had pre warning tsunami devices we could have protected thousands of lives and their assets. Because the tsunami waves which came in year 2004 had epicenter in Indonesia and it took around 45 mnts time to come across south India. In the meantime if the pre warning devices had been there, many lives could have been protected. Now India has such device, but it was availed only after major tragedy took place in the country.
We say that smart and wise functioning of meteorological dept. can warn the upcoming havoc and tragedy well before. In Uttarakhand case, even Met. department confessed this fact that they could not forecast the event in an emphatic manner. But in Kashmir, the Met dept, very much warned about heavy rain well in advance, but the administration was not used to this kind of calamity in last 50 years and so was in drowsy mood even after the warning.
Talking about quake, we already know the seismic sensitivity of different regions of the country; the whole countries have been divided on the basis of various category of seismic zone. Normally the quake event mostly affects the buildings and constructions. The building which are very old and one which have not been constructed after following the quake proof technology; they are affected most with quake events. So the preparation on such kind of disasters requires strict formulation of quake proof building technology.
When we talk about country specific disasters, we should adopt anti disasters measures accordingly. It is true that to avert the effects of disaster and to operate the post disaster operation, there requires huge amount of resources, manpower and technology. The countries which have lack of resources or having poor economy, they lack in relief operation also. But the general trend is that in the circumstances of disaster and calamities, the whole world and international organizations get united and they give donation and other help to the needy country in magnanimous manner. Only thing is that how smart a country operates the pre and post disaster operations with the help of modern anti disaster technology and training.
Some people quote the famous example of Malthus, who had said the over population of a country or a region get controlled by nature in form of various disasters, so country or human should check their population through preventive or natural checks. But, when we talk about disaster, we cannot relate this issue with the issue of population control only. Disaster could happen even in low density population area also, it require its proper handling .America is the richest as well as wisest country of world, but in last 2-3 years America has also witnessed numbers of disasters in form of storms from sandy storm to katerina storm etc. Ultimately all country whether poor or rich, prone or remote to disaster, they should be always ready to arrange the pre disaster as well as post disaster preparedness in their respective zone
We know we have variety of disasters in terms of drought, flood, cyclone, storms, tsunami, earthquake, landslide, cloud burst, toofans, epidemics, and manmade events like terrorist event, mass killings by criminals and naxals, accidents (road, railway, air) and fire burnings etc. And these all disasters demand separate and different preparation. I think these preparations should be started first through mass awareness about different preventive measures for different disasters events. We have an institution like NIDM(National institute of disaster management) which studies the various technicalities attached with disasters. We should brought our all school, colleges, offices and all public institutions under mass awareness about all possible disasters in the country and region in particular.
Second part of pre preparation of disasters must be the adopting strict norms about quake proof buildings, constructions. Third, we should have a strong sense of road and traffic management. Our rail and air traffic management must be provided with highest degree of security element. If we talk about epidemics, we should have high degree of pre management about cleanliness and all. For meeting out fire and house burning we already have good network of fire fighting departments. The only thing lacks, that is alertness.
Talking about pre preparation about disasters, we should take the issue of this recent uttarkhand and Kashmir disaster in a very serious way. As of now there was tug of war between develop mentalist and environmentalist. Sometime we perceived that environmentalists' motive is to only create hurdle before the way of development. We used to say that environmentalists don't consider the scientific and technological aspect of development and they straightforwadingly condemns the various development project whether it is dams or river valley project or cutting of jungles for the establishing rail, roads etc. Untill now we considered that environmentalists are insane and they do everything on the basis of perception not on the basis of science and technology meant for development. But the Uttarkhand's tragedy episode has clearly proved that environmentalist concern were right, because the developmentalists do not take project just according to the development need of the people, rather according to the greed of some vested interest groups.
The government prepares programs like dams and river valley project just to garner the public money. I always feel that money spent over water whether for irrigation canal or river barrage or dams, it actually goes into the water. Water is a free gift of nature in form of river, sea and reservoirs. Actually we do not understand when we try to construct dams; we try to control the almighty nature. It is true that with the help of technology and resource, we become able to do things in wayward manner, but the question is ultimately does it last? We commit wrong not only on ecological terms, but we also do wrong in economic terms. To my mind construction of dam is a shier misuse of public money. The law of economics says the output should be always ahead of its cost, otherwise project cannot be made sustainable. So the construction of dams is neither viable in economic terms nor sustainable in ecological terms.
Construction of dams and any construction is not a need of development, rather the greed of planners and engineers who spent huge amount of public money to siphon out the money in to their pocket. In the same way the neo corrupt and neo rich builders lobby, who have erected row of building on the bank of various rivers over Uttarakhand and many other states,without studying the composition of soil and rock, they not only destroyed the ecology there, rather they are responsible for the annihilation of humanity. The result is before us.
The coast of river could not tolerate the speed of water and as a consequence, thousands of building, cars and life flown away into the rivers. It is not a development; it is actually commercialization and greed of business which brought builders there. Science and technology is for the sake of humanity and its development, it is not for the sake of annihilation of humanity. But the modern path of development have taken science and technologies under its clutches and just use it or misuse it for the sake of commerce and business profit; that is why we allow construction of dams, buildings in the hilly region. It is actually insanity on the part of developmentalist and planners who are doing such kind of things.
We know in plains area we can do some unavoidable developmental work at the cost of environment. For example we construct roads, railways line and bridges after cutting some trees, but it could be re maintained by plantation and aforestation. But we cannot make the bank of rivers coming under the hilly region as strong after making construction there.
In conclusion, both the pre and post disaster management require four cornered stragegy. First legislation and regulatory, second is bringing institutional coordination between all direct and indirect disaster management agencies, third is to make alert the anti disaster professionals like meterologists, disaster scientist, Army, police, firefighters, Doctors, swimmers etc. and fourth is to avail sufficient numbers of disaster management equipments like ambulence(Road, air, water), moving trauma hospitals, Hellicopter, accidents trains, artificial housing materials and food & shelter items on demand.
Now the time has come when we should go for that kind of policy which can allow developmental activities only within the periphery of sustainable environment and second for the country this is high time to start a national campaign for both kind of pre and post preparation for all kind of disasters at the optimum level.
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