ARE WE PREPARED FOR DISASTERS?
India
is a country that is geographically rich and has great topographical variety.
We are blessed with the seas on three sides, the Himalayas in the north along
with numerous forests and rivers. While we benefit from all of them, there are
also some threats that these resources pose.
Natural
hazards are some unpredictable, unfavourable changes taking place in nature
that causes mass destruction. With development in technology, we have gotten
better at foreseeing and mitigating them. With time, the IMD and the disaster
management force of India have become more and more experienced due to which we
are able to soften the blow of disasters.
It
is not true that India’s preparedness for mitigation of natural disasters is
weak even with technology. Cyclones have become an annual occurrence in the Bay
of Bengal. With their powerful instruments, the IMD is able to predict the
disastrous waves and inform people beforehand. This valuable information
enables the government to bring their people to high ground, away from the monstrous
waves. The government also informs the fishermen not to go out to sea and
thereby saves precious lives. Apart from cyclones, torrential downpours have
also posed hurdles for many southern states. Recently, Kerala faced a
massive flood that caused a great loss to human life and property. In this case
too, the Kerala Government was pre-warned, due to which they moved those people
who lived too near the Periyar River.
All
these instances are testimonials of how well-prepared India is when it comes to
natural hazards. If it were not for the precise prediction of the hazard and
the people who knew how to handle the situation when disaster strikes, India
would have lost a lot of valuable lives. Even after the D-day, the aftermath of
the destruction is carefully managed. People who have lost their homes are
given shelter; people are rescued from remote areas and the dead are disposed
with dignity. Due to all of this, I feel that it is not correct to say that
India seems to be unprepared in the face of hazard even when it has advanced
technology.
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