Abstract
Leh district of Ladakh region was hit by a catastrophic cloudburst at midnight on 6 August 2010, taking the lives of at least 234 people and injuring many others. The survivors of this disaster faced psychological trauma of different kinds, including acute stress response, acute stress disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders. People between 20 and 40 years and those of low socio-economic status were the most vulnerable to post-disaster distress. The study of two disaster-hit localities, Leh town and Choglamsar village, shows that 70% of the patients were women, which might at first sight indicate that women are more vulnerable to post-disaster psychological problems. However, the association between post-disaster psychiatric disorder and gender was not found to be significant in our statistical analysis. A well-framed and comprehensive mental health and psychosocial support programme is imperative in order to address psychosocial problems arising in the aftermath of any future disaster.
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Notes
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A recent study by Sambu and Mhongo (2019), found, similarly, that 20–35-year-old adults exhibited the least resilience to trauma in a village population affected by severe political violence in Kenya.
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Tabassum, N., Kanth, T.A. (2023). Impact of 2010 Leh Cloudburst: A Psychological Perspective. In: Humbert-Droz, B., Dame, J., Morup, T. (eds) Environmental Change and Development in Ladakh, Indian Trans-Himalaya. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42494-6_4
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