[Link] are not only natural but also human made.
Explain and suggest the way
forward.
Intro:
A disaster is a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a
community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that
exceed the community's or society's ability to cope using its own resources. Disasters such as
earthquakes, Cyclones, Flood, Drought are natural and an act of God.
Conclusion:
Disasters can not be stopped but well-preparedness and strong climate change mitigation
policies can definitely help prevent a huge amount of loss.
Content
Disaster not only natural but also human induced
1. Environmental degradation: Removal of trees and forest cover from a watershed area
have caused soil erosion, expansion of flood plain area in upper and middle course of
rivers and groundwater depletion.
2. Developmental process: Exploitation of land use, development of infrastructure, rapid
urbanization and technological development have caused increasing pressure over the
natural resources.
3. Political issues: War, nuclear power aspirations, fight between countries to become
super power and conquering land, sea and skies. These have resulted into a wide
range of disaster events such as Hiroshima nuclear explosion, Syrian civil
war, growing militarisation of oceans and outer space.
4. Industrialization: This has resulted in warming of earth and frequency of extreme
weather events has also increased.
5. No Stringent Policies: Studies have flagged ice loss across the Himalayas has been
rapidly melting thus increasing the dangers to densely populated catchments, but any
hard and fast policy response has been lacking.
6. Lack of Proper Training Programs: There were no awareness programs or training
provided to the people about disaster management by the government in case of the
recent Uttarakhand floods.
7. Ignorance by Government: A 2012 expert group appointed by the government had
recommended against the construction of dams in the Alaknanda-Bhagirathi basin,
including on the Rishiganga and in “the periglacial zone,” but the recommendations
were ignored.
8. Similarly, ignorance of the Kerala government in terms of regulation of mining,
quarrying and dam construction in ecologically sensitive places, led to massive
floods and landslides in 2018 and 2019.
9. Ineffective Satellite Monitoring: Despite possessing remarkable satellite capabilities,
India still hasn’t been able to use such imagery effectively for advance warning.
Way Forward
1. Budgetary Allocation: A vital step should be explicitly including policies for climate
mitigation in the government budget, along with energy, roads, health and education.
2. Specifically, growth targets should include timelines for switching to cleaner energy.
3. Climate Adaptation: Even if major economies speed up climate mitigation, such
catastrophes will become more frequent due to the accumulated carbon emissions in
the atmosphere. Climate adaptation is the way forward here.
4. India’s Central and State governments must increase allocations for risk
reduction, such as agricultural innovations to withstand droughts.
5. In case of fire prone areas, an area can be divided into pockets so as to prevent any
massive spread of fire.
6. Detailed Studies: Detailed studies should be conducted to understand which of the
regions are prone to disasters.
7. Such research should feed into Environmental Impact Assessment reports and guide
decisions on developmental projects.
8. Setting up Early Warning Systems: This has to be coupled with plans to quickly
evacuate local communities to safer regions.
9. Any disaster events do not occur all of a sudden; there are ample indications which, if
monitored earlier, can help save a significant number of lives and other damages.
2. Why are tropical cyclones more prevalent in Bay of Bengal?
Introduction
Thirteen coastal states and Union Territories (UTs) in the country, encompassing 84 coastal
districts, are affected by tropical cyclones. Four states (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa
and West Bengal) and one UT (Puducherry) on the east coast and one state (Gujarat) on the
west coast are more vulnerable to hazards associated with cyclones.
In the last 270 years, 21 of the 23 major cyclones (with a loss of about 10,000 lives or more)
worldwide occurred over the area surrounding the Indian subcontinent (India and
Bangladesh).
Conclusion:
With climate change there will be greater incidences of natural disasters such as cyclones.
There is a need to adopt a proper mitigation and adaptation strategy to minimize the loss of
life and property due to these disasters,
Body:
Reasons for more tropical cyclone originate in Bay of Bengal :
1. Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal can be attributed to the vast low pressure created by
the warm water of the ocean.
2. The Bay of Bengal shaped like a trough that makes it more hospitable for storms to
gain force.
3. The high sea surface temperature makes matters more worse in the Bay triggering the
intensity of the storms.
4. Bay of Bengal gets more rainfall with sluggish winds and warm air currents around it
that keep temperatures relatively high all year.
5. The constant inflow of fresh warm water from the perineal rivers like Bramhmaputra,
Ganga makes it further impossible to mix with the cooler water below.
6. The absence of air movements from north-western India towards the Bay in the post-
monsoon phase is also another reason for the chances of cyclones in the Bay of
Bengal.
