Natural Hazards, Disasters and Their Mitigation: An Overview with Reference to Indian Scenario

Abstract

Natural hazards are phenomena that are triggered by natural causes of geological, geophysical and hydro-meteorological origins. They occur in well-defined tectonic domains, like for instance the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, stretching from New Zealand along the eastern edge of Asia, northwards across the Aleutians of Alaska and southward along the coasts of North and South America and which is the loci for most of the world’s volcanoes and intense seismic activity. It is thus possible to say where these hazards like a volcano or an earthquake could be expected but as of today their forecasts and predictions remain difficult to achieve. Natural hazards are beyond human control and therefore when they strike a human habitation, they can instantly turn into disasters and wreak heavy loss of life and property, often pushing an unprepared Nation to virtual economic crisis. In recent years several major earthquakes have rocked megacities of the world causing contrasting damages in terms of fatalities and property. Haiti, a poor underdeveloped nation was nearly annihilated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010 mainly because the country was unprepared to meet the impending danger, whereas well prepared nations in terms of disaster mitigation, management and crisis control withstood such hazard onslaughts with confidence for example, Chile in 2010 of a 8.0 magnitude earthquake and Tahoka of an earthquake-tsunami onslaught (9.0 magnitude temblor). This paper reviews briefly mitigation and disaster strategies that lead to maximum reduction in the devastating effects of hazards occurring in a given habitation, with special reference to India.

Dr. Vasudevan Desikachari is a Retired Deputy Director General of Geological Survey of India.