Vikas's Tid Bits

Natural Calamity - Are we prepared enough?

Ten countries have been affected by the Tsunamis tidal waves caused by an 9.0 magnitude earthquake near Indonesia on 26th December, 2004. Thousands of people in the coastal states of India (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Pondicherry), Indonesia, Thailand & Srilanka have lost their lives. Property worth crores of rupees has been damaged. The death toll is feared to cross 40,000 (current data: India - 9,500, Indonesia- 20,000, Srilanka - 12,000, Myanmar - 60, Thailand - 870, Malaysia - 52, Maldives - 46, Somalia - 38, Seychelles - 3, Bangladesh - 2) .
This is a shocking & painful event which reminds the strength of mother nature. Nature can bring adverse calamities which can't be controlled. Human race and the madness of growth can be a significant contributor to these kind of disasters. Question arises on whom to be blamed for these calamities? Is it possible to lessen the damage which can be caused by such disasters? Do we have any such tools & equipments which can either predict the event or atleast warn the neighbouring places (like India was hit hours after Indonesia was struck with the quake)? Is the SE Asia's government prepared enough to tackle these disasters. India faced a deadly earthquake in Bhuj on Jan 26, 2001. Have we learnt anything from that disaster? Was government prepared to such future calamitiess? Reports are showing no rescue team available in the remote places of Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu.
Government should focus on handling the natural calamities as country has witnessed lot of deadly earthquakes "be it in Latur, Uttaranchal, Gujarat or now in SE coastal area". There should be a separate team of individuals trained to handle these scenarios. We should also improve the weather tracking tools which can provide much early warnings for these kind of disasters. These conditions also calls for better transportation facilities in the remote places of country.
There are lot of youths who are willing to contribute towards the cause in the disasters but they lack the information on how these contributions should be made. This reminds us of the various NGOs working in India who always step forward to the cause of humanity. We should also salute the individuals who contribute their time and physical presence to this cause.

posted by Vikas Mishra @ 1:54 am