• WHAT IS A DISASTER?• NATURAL DISASTERS OF INDIA 1997-2010• SAVING OURSELVES FROM DISASTERS• CONCLUSION

A SERIOUS DISRUPTION IN THE FUNCTIONING OF THE SOCIETY DUE TO A HAZARD WHICH CAUSES A HUGE DAMAGE TO LIFE,PROPERTY AND LIVLIHOOD AND REQUIRES EXTERNAL SUPPORT IS TERMED A

►EARTHQUAKES►CYCLONES►TSUNAMI► FLOOD ►LANDSLIDE►STORM ►FOREST FIRES►DROUGHT

EARTHQUAKE IS THE SUDDEN SHAKING OF EARTH’S CRUST.THE TECTONIC PLATES FLOATING OVER THE MANTLE OFTEN COLLIDE WITH EACH OTHER THUS INCREASING THE PRESSURE. THIS PRESSURE IS RELEASED RESULTIG IN A FAULT. THE SEISMIC ZONES OF INDIA IS SHOWN BELOW

THE WORD CYCLONE IS DERIVED FROM THE GREEK WORD CYCLOS MEANING COILS OF A SNAKE. CYCLONES IS A HUGE REVOLVING STORMS CAUSED BY WINDS BLOWING AROUND A CENTRAL AREA OF LOW ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE. IT IS A SWIRLING ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCE ACCOMPANIED BY POWERFUL WINDS BLOWING IN A CLOCKWISE DIRECTION IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AND ANTI CLOCKWISE DIRECTION IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

TSUNAMIS ARE ENORMOUS WAVES

WHICH ARE USUALLY FORMED WHEN THE SEA BED IS DISTURBED BY AN UNDER EARTHQUAKE OR BY A LANDSLIDE. TSUNAMIS TRASH EVERYTHING IN THEIR PATH. THEY ARE VERY DANGEROUS.

A FLOOD OCCURS WHEN WATER RISES BEYOND ITS NORMAL COURSE. THE MAIN CAUSE OF FLOOD IS HEAVY RAIN. FLOOD IS VERY COMMON IN LOW LYING AREAS AND RIVER BEDS.

A LANDSLIDE IS A GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENON WHICH INCLUDES A WIDE RANGE OF GROUND MOVEMENTSUCH AS ROCK FALLS, DEEP FAILURE OF SLOPES AND SHALLOW DEBRIS FLOWS,WHICH CAN OCCUR ON SHORE , OFF SHORE AND COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS.

• The 1997 Jabalpur earthquake occurred on May 22, 1997 in Jabalpur District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at  23.18°N 80.02°E near Koshamghat village. According to geologist Dr V. Subramanyan, the quake was caused due to the presence of Narmada Fault.

On 11 and 17 August 1998 at village Malpa in Uttarkhand state about 380 people were killed when massive landslides washed away the entire village. The dead included 60 Hindu pilgrims on their way to Kailash Mansarovar lake in Tibet.The noted Indian dancer Protima Bedi was one of the pilgrims who died in the landslide.

The 1999 Orissa cyclone, also known as Cyclone

05B, and Paradip cyclone, was the deadliest Indian Ocean tropical cyclone .The storm made landfall just weeks after a Category 4 storm hit the same general area.

A tropical depression formed over the Malay Peninsula on October 25. It moved to the northwest and became a tropical storm on October 26. It continued to strengthen into a cyclone on the 27th. On October 28, it became a severe cyclone with a peak of 160 mph (260 km/h) winds. It hit India the next day as a 155 mph (250 km/h) cyclone. It caused the deaths of 15,000 people, and heavy to extreme damage in its path of destruction.

2000 Mumbai landslide is the landslide in Ghatkopar suburbs of Mumbai in July 2000 that killed 67 people and injured many. The landslide was the result of land erosion following heavy rains.

The 2001 Gujarat earthquake occurred on January 26, 2001,at 08:46 AM. The epicentre was Bhuj (23.6° N 69.8° E) Gujarat, India. With a magnitude of between 7.6 and 8.1 on the Richter scale, the quake killed around 20,000 people , injured another 167,000 and destroyed nearly 400,000 homes.This was an intraplate earthquake, one that occurred at a distance from any plate boundary where plate tectonics create most earthquakes, so the area was not well prepared.

Severe Cyclonic Storm Onil  was the first tropical cyclone to be named in the northern Indian Ocean. Forming out of an area of convection several hundred kilometres southwest of India on October 1, Cyclone Onil quickly attained its peak intensity on October 2 with winds of 100 km/h and a barometric pressure of 990 mbar . However, dry air quickly entered the system, causing it to rapidly weaken to a depression just off the coast of Gujarat, India. Over the following several days, the system took a slow, erratic track towards the south-southeast. After turning northeastward, the system made landfall near Porbandar on October 10 and dissipated shortly thereafter.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia...The earthquake was caused by subduction and triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high.It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia was the hardest hit, followed by Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.4 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.Its hypocenter was between Simeulue and mainland Indonesia.

The 2005 Kashmir Earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Pakistan-administered Kashmir known as Azad Kashmir, near the city of Muzaffarabad, affectingGilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It occurred at 08:52:37 Pakistan Standard Time (03:52:37 UTC) on 8 October 2005. It registered amoment magnitude of 7.6 making it similar in size to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 1935 Quetta earthquake, the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and the 2009 Sumatra earthquakes. The death toll was 75,000. The tremors were felt in Tajikistan, western China.

The 2005 Gujarat Flood was a bout of major flooding affecting many parts of Gujarat and was caused by heavy monsoon rains in June 2005. Many of the southern districts of Gujarat were on flood alert. About 15,000 people were evacuated from the coastal regions. On June 30, the state was put on high alert and the army was asked to stand-by for rescue and relief operations. Most of the airports and trains in the state were not operational.As of July 2 the death toll was about 123 people state wide and more than 250,000 evacuated.The relief package is estimated to be over Rs. 8000 crore.

On 6 April 2006, an earthquake was reported at 11:29:16 p.m. IST in Gujarat, India's Kutch and Saurashtra region. Intensity of the earthquake was measured at 5.5 on the Richter Scale.The location of the earthquake was measured at 23.281°N, 70.422°E at the depth of 10KM.

The 2008 Bihar flood, which started in the month of August 2007, It is believed to be the worst flood in Bihar in last 30 years. By August 3, the estimated death toll was 41 people, and 48 schoolgirls were marooned in a school in the Darbhanga district.By August 8, an estimated 10 million people in Bihar had been affected by flooding.Till August 11, flood deaths were still occurring.

The 2009 Andaman Islands earthquake was an earthquake that occurred on August 11, 2009, at 01:25 am local time in the Andaman Islands of India.The earthquake magnitude was recorded as 7.5 Mw, and was the strongest earthquake in the region since the 2004 earthquake. The epicenter was 260 km north of Port Blair, and tremors were felt in south-east India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand. No casualties or injuries were reported, although there were complaints about minor damages to buildings.

Cyclone Aila  was the second tropical cyclone to form within the Northern Indian Ocean during 2009. The disturbance that was to become Cyclone Aila formed on 21 May 2009 about 950 kilometres (590 mi) to the south of Kolkata, inIndia. Over the next couple of days the disturbance slowly developed before a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert was issued by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center early on 23 May 2009 and being designated as a depression by RSMC New Delhi. As of 27 May 2009, 330 people have been killed by Aila and at least 8,208 more are missing, while about 1 million are homeless.

Cyclonic Storm Phyan developed as a tropical disturbance to the southwest of Colombo in Sri Lanka on November 4, 2009. Over the next couple of days the disturbance gradually developed before weakening as it made landfall on Southern India on November 7. After the disturbance emerged into the Arabian Sea it rapidly became more marked with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) reporting early on November 9 that the disturbance had intensified into a Depression and designated it as Depression ARB 03 whilst the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert. Later that day the JTWC designated the system as Cyclone 04A. During the next day as the Depression turned towards the northeast the IMD reported that it had intensified into a Cyclonic Storm and named it as Phyan.

The 2010 Leh floods occurred on August 6, 2010 in Leh in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. At least 193 people died, and thousands were injured as heavy rains overnight caused flash floods and mudslides.Thousands more were rendered homeless according to government officials.200 people were still missing following the floods.

Cyclonic Storm Laila is the first cyclonic storm to affect southeastern India in May since the 1990 Andhra Pradesh cyclone. The first tropical cyclone of the 2010 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Laila developed on May 17 in the Bay of Bengal from a persistent area of convection. Strengthening as it tracked northwestward, it became a severe cyclonic storm on May 19. The next day, Laila made landfall in Andhra Pradesh, and it later dissipated over land. It caused flooding and damage along its path. Laila is an Urdu name, meaning Night. it is the worst storm to hit Andhra Pradesh over the last 14 years.

THE PROCESS INVOLVING ACTIVITIES THAT HELP US TO FACE DISASTERS EFFECTIVELY IS KNOWN AS DISASTERS IS KNOWN AS DISASTER MANAGEMENT.WE SHOULD BE TRAINED TO FACE DISASTERS IN OUR SCHOOLS,COMMUNITIES ETC TO REDUCE TH DESTRUCTION CAUSED BY DISASTERS. THE FIRST RESPONDERS IN THE DISASTER PRONE AREA ARE MORE FOREWARNED THAN US TO FACE DISASTERS.

NATURAL DISASTERS ARE NATURAL. THEY CANNOT BE STOPPED BUT THE VULNERABILITY CAN BE REDUCED. AS INDIA IS A DISASTER PRONE AREA,EVERY INDIVIDUAL SHOULD KNOW HOW TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM DISASTERS.