Nature has a myriad of weapons to combat human arrogance.
On the planet earth, enormous energy storages exist in forms such as ocean tidal energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, seismic energy. It is important to appreciate that these energy storages are not static but dynamic i.e these energies keep transforming from one form to another usually maintaining isostatic equilibrium.
In nature, most of the time energy transfers are quite smooth but there are situations when the magnitude of energy transfer is soo enormous that smoothness can not be maintained, resulting in sudden movements that result in disasters.
Over the centuries, phenomena like an earthquake, volcanos, tsunamis, cyclones have been occurring. In all such phenomena, an enormous amount of transfer of energy takes place via high-velocity wind or high rising ocean water or rushing of water during the flooding of rivers or hot magma erupting out of the earth or a type of energy of wave motion transmitted through the surface layer of earth in earthquakes.
In addition to such natural phenomena as more and more industrialization takes place, many industrial accidents causing extensive damage to the atmosphere and groundwater have also occurred.
All such natural or man-made phenomena which cause enormous damage to humans, flora-fauna, man-made structures, etc can be classified as disasters.
Before we start to plan how to manage disasters it will be helpful to list some of the well-known disasters of the last few decades:-
1:- Bhopal gas tragedy 1984-It was the early morning of December 3, 1984, when the people of Bhopal were half-sleep, a poisonous gas which has started leaking from the union carbide plant gradually started filling the atmosphere. Hundreds of people started running to hospitals for various symptoms that they started feeling because of inhaling gas like dizziness, breathlessness, skin irritation, and rashes.
Now, this accident or disaster is known as the worst man-made industrial disaster called the Bhopal gas tragedy
Actually, For record sake, let us mention that the most disastrous man-made catastrophe is the cruel and intentional atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945 which is estimated to have killed lakhs of people.
In recent times, a somewhat similar accident did take place during the re-opening of a plant during unlocking in Vizag on 7 May 2020 at LG Polymers chemical plant.
2:-Uttarkashi earthquake 1991-
On the fateful day of 20 October at 2.53 a.m., the tension snapped 15 km below the surface, 80 km north of Almora town – the epicenter. It created a rupture nearly 25-km-long in the subterranean structure and registered 6.1 on the Richter scale, making it a ‘moderate’ earthquake. Its destructive power is at least 1,000 times less than that of a quake which measures 8 on the same scale. Yet, it released the energy of the order of 280 kilotons of TNT – unleashing nearly 15 times more power than the Hiroshima bomb.
This earthquake originated in the 50-km-wide, the highly active seismic belt that lies between what seismologists call the Main Boundary Fault (MBF) and the Main Central Thrust (MCT).
3:- Indian ocean earthquake and tsunami 2004- On December 26, 2004 morning walkers and fishermen residing along the eastern coast of India observed a strange phenomenon of the sea receding a few hundred meters inside exposing parts of the coastal shelf and then gradually what they observed was a precursor to the incoming gigantic tsunami waves.
The ocean floor broke and there was a vertical displacement of about 15 to 20 meters. This kind of large vertical displacement happens because the magnitude of the earthquake was greater than 9 and it occurred at a shallow depth of less than 30km below the ocean.
4:-Kedarnath tragedy 2013-In the early hours of June 17, 2013, a flash flood came down upon the overflowing banks of the Chorabari lake in Uttarakhand. Carrying huge amounts of silt and rocks, it destroyed lives, houses, and everything else that came it’s away. Between June 13 and 17, the state of Uttarakhand had received an unusual amount of rainfall. This led to the melting of the Chorabari glacier and the eruption of the Mandakini river. The floods affected large parts of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Western Nepal. The heavy rainfall caused massive flash floods and landslides resulting in the death of residents and tourists as well as extensive damage to property.
5:- Cyclone feni 2019- It was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike the Indian State of Odisha since the 1999 Odisha Cyclone. the second named stormed and the first serious cyclonic storm of the 2019 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, fans originated from a tropical depression that formed west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean on 26 April. Vertical wind fear at first handed the
storm’s development, but conditions became more favorable for Fani on 30 April. Fani killed at least 89 people in Eastern India and Bangladesh and cause extensive damages in both India and Bangladesh, mostly in Odisha, in India.
6:-And finally, the most recent one in Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcanic eruption 2020- Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano erupted on 14th august, sending a column of ash and smoke more than 16,000 feet into the air. The volcano became active in 2010, erupting after nearly 400 years of inactivity.
According to the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), USA, generally, there are about 20 volcanoes actively erupting every day. As per the weekly volcanic activity report prepared by The Smithsonian and US Geological Survey’s (USGS) Volcano Hazards program, for the week ending August 4, 2020, there were 17 volcanoes across the world with continuing eruptions.
In most cases, it is difficult to prevent such disasters. However, in some cases where there is forewarning like in case of cyclone and tsunami, it is possible to reduce the extent of damage to life and property.
Man-made disasters to a large extent can even be prevented by taking suitable safety protocols. However, disasters like an earthquake cannot be predicted so far.
In all cases, it is important to have a dedicated disaster management policy.
The next article will deal with disaster management.