It is very tempting to portray this catastrophic loss of human life and property as an instance of nature’s fury, and simply dismiss it as a ‘natural calamity’. Heavy rain, earthquakes, forest fires, volcanoes, flash floods, cloudbursts, storms, tornadoes, tsunamis — all are part of nature. They have been taking place since the creation of this planet, and would continue to do so. Equally certain has been our successive governments’ unpreparedness — irrespective of their political affiliation — in handling such situations. Any such event in India is followed by a predictable pattern. Losses are severely exacerbated due to unpreparedness, a political blame game follows and an effective relief operation by the Indian Army is usually the saving grace. Of course, not much time passes before all this is forgotten and a fresh tragedy destroys us again. For all our pretence of being a superpower, our ability to cope with natural events is medieval. An unfortunate fatalistic mindset, which for various reasons is part of our psyche, only makes it convenient for the authorities to evade responsibility for their dereliction. Has there been a single year when India has not been ravaged by a natural calamity? Floods in Bihar and West Bengal, typhoons on the eastern coast, cloudbursts in the Himalayas, deluges in Mumbai, earthquakes, tsunamis continue to take their toll every year. To suggest that India’s topography makes it vulnerable to natural disasters would be disingenuous. The Japanese archipelago sits atop a part of earth’s crust where several continental and oceanic plates meet. This results in frequent earthquakes and tsunamis. The Japanese governments learnt pretty early that earthquakes don’t kill people, but poorly constructed buildings do. This explains the immense preparedness that the country shows — through strict building laws, continuous training, early warning systems and a well established relief mechanism. In Australia, drought and associated heat waves occur every three years (on an average), and the government is now well equipped to handle these situations. Experts tell us there are four pillars of an efficient disaster management system — known as the four ‘R’s, viz., reduction (prevention), readiness, response and recovery. Courtesy the superb Army and an indomitable resilience of the Indian people, we fare well partially on the last aspect, recovery. As for the other three, we fail miserably. Take the latest case — one need not be the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to know what has been happening in the hills. Haphazard building activity on the banks of the rivers has left the people in the regions exposed to floods and quakes. Add to it the ill-equipped hospitals, poor public transportation system, lack of training in dealing with such events and a non-existent information dissemination mechanism; the people caught in the maelstrom are sitting ducks. Contrary to popular perception, preventive disaster management doesn’t involve heavy expenditure. It involves zero tolerance to illegal construction, i.e., the land mafia, proper eco-sensitive analysis before every big project, an appreciation of the fact that 50 per cent of our population lives in informal settlements that makes them susceptible to elements of nature, fierce protection of natural vanguards such as trees and river embankments, public education, well stocked and functioning dispensaries, and a state-of-the-art warning and response mechanism. (Curtsy The Tribune Chandigarh)
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 03:17:24 +0000
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