Water and Climate Disaster: Flood, hail storms, cloudburst, cyclones, heat waves, cold waves, droughts, hurricanes.
Geological Disaster: Landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes.
Biological Disaster: Viral epidemics, pest attacks, cattle epidemic and locust plagues.
Industrial Disaster: Chemical and industrial accidents, mine shaft fires, oil spills.
Nuclear Disasters: Nuclear core meltdowns, radiation poisoning.
Man-made disasters: Urban and forest fires, oil spill, the collapse of huge building structures.
India is vast and diverse in terms of its physical and socio-cultural attributes. It is largely due to its vast geographical area, environmental diversities, and cultural pluralities, India is struggling with disasters for many years.
Its vastness in terms of natural attributes combined with its prolonged colonial past, continuing various forms of social discriminations and also equally large population has enhanced its vulnerability to natural disasters.
Killer waves (tsunami) struck the coastal parts of India on 26th December 2004 or the morning of 26th January 2001, when western part of India was badly affected by the earthquake or recent flash flood in the Uttrakhand or Cyclone Phalin at Odisha coast.
These are just a few examples. We always listen to such kind of news
in print or electronic media that one part of India is affected by flood whereas another faces drought. Due to the vulnerability of different kinds of disasters, it is said that India is a disaster-prone country, the reasons are:
Researchers have been studying disasters for more than a century. The studies reflect a common opinion when they argue that all disasters can be seen as being human-made, their reasoning being that human actions before the strike of the hazard can prevent it developing into a disaster.
All disasters are hence the result of human failure to introduce appropriate disaster management measures Hazards are routinely divided into natural or human-made, although complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries.
(1) Man-made Disasters: Disasters caused by human action, negligence, error, or involving the failure of a system are called human-made disasters. Human-made disasters are in turn categorized as technological or sociological. Technological disasters are the results of the failure of technology, such as engineering failures, transport disasters, or environmental disasters. Sociological disasters have a strong human motive, such as criminal acts, stampedes, riots, and war.
(2) Natural Disasters: Broadly, natural disasters can be classified under four categories
Q-1 With reference to National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) guidelines, discuss the measures to be adopted to mitigate the impact of recent incidents of cloudbursts in many places of Uttarakhand. (2016)
Q-2 Are Indian Disaster Management Agencies properly equipped to handle a major disaster. Critically analyze the strengths and weakness of Indian Disaster Management Framework.