Natural Disasters in India – Geography – UGC NET – Notes

Natural Disaster means a natural event that causes severe damage to lives and properties. For example flood, earthquake, or hurricane. Natural disasters in India are often due to the climate of India. The most common natural disasters in India are cyclones, droughts, flash floods, avalanches, landslides caused by torrential rainfall, and snowstorms. Natural disasters are unpredictable and it may take many years to recover and restore the damage caused by natural disasters.

Background

• Natural disasters are environmental events that threaten a community’s safety and functionality.
• Hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, and avalanches are examples of natural disasters.
• Natural Disaster has the potential to do substantial damage to both public and private property.
• Landslides can be caused by activities such as deforestation, agricultural operations, mining, and so on. Furthermore, flames may wreak havoc on the natural habitats of plants and animals.
• Natural disasters are classified into five types. These are some examples.
  • Geological disasters
  • Hydrological disasters
  • Meteorological disasters
  • Space disasters
  • Wildfires

Geological Disasters

• Geological disasters are caused by changes above or under the earth’s surface.
• Geological disasters caused by tectonic plates have unforeseen and out-of-control consequences.
• Examples of geological disasters include Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and avalanches.
• Earthquake occurs when there is a rapid release of energy in the Earth’s crust, which causes seismic waves.
• Earthquakes exhibit themselves at the Earth’s surface as vibration, shaking, and, in certain cases, displacement of the ground. Slippage within geological faults causes earthquakes.
• In the Lower Himalayas, landslides are prevalent. Because the region’s hills are young, they include rock formations that are prone to sliding.
• Deforestation is caused by rising population and development pressures, mainly from logging and tourism.
• Avalanches are frequent in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Sikkim, among other places.
• Landslides are also extremely dangerous in India, where many Indian families and farmers live in the hills or mountains.

Hydrological Disasters

• Hydrological disasters are caused by abrupt changes in the quality or distribution of water under the earth’s surface, as well as changes in meteorological conditions.
• Examples of hydrological disasters include flooding, drought, mudslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, etc.
• A flood is defined as an excess of water on land. A river may acquire more water from strong rains or other natural calamities. When this occurs, the water overflows from its typical course in the river bed and onto dry ground.
• Tsunamis are sometimes referred to as tidal waves because they resemble fast-rising tides, but experts avoid using this term since tides are generated by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon, but tsunamis are caused by water displacement.
• The tsunami of 2004 was produced by a massive earthquake, the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph.

Meteorological Disasters

• Meteorological Disasters are primarily caused due to extreme weather conditions such as drought, snow, and rain.
• These natural disasters have an impact on the weather-forming process and atmospheric conditions.
• Examples of meteorological disasters include blizzards, droughts, cold waves, tornadoes, cyclonic storms, etc.
• A cyclone is defined as any low-pressure system with inward-spiraling winds. In the Northern Hemisphere, cyclones revolve anticlockwise, whereas, in the Southern Hemisphere, they rotate clockwise.
• Cyclogenesis is the process of cyclone development and strengthening.
• A drought is a period of drier-than-normal weather that causes water-related issues.
• The quantity of precipitation in a given area fluctuates from year to year, but the average amount remains fairly steady throughout time.

Space Disasters

• Disasters produced by asteroids, meteors, and solar flares are all examples of space disasters.
• Failures in technology, design, and management result in terrible loss of life in space.
• While fatal accidents like the Columbia Disaster, the Challenger Explosion, and the tragic flight of Soyuz 11 cause dramatic responses.
• There is just as much to be learned from unmanned failures and near misses that highlight design and operational flaws away from the public eye, because when a space accident does not claim lives, it is more a matter of luck than of preparedness.

Wildfires

• Wildfires can be caused by natural calamities such as drought and lightning. Many humans, however, burn fires in woods to make way for agricultural land.
• Forest fires have become a global hazard, with many nations suffering major loss of life and property.
• Furthermore, the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of forest fires causes lung and skin illnesses in humans.
• Forest fires in India are most common in March and April when the ground is covered with dried logs, hay, weeds, trees, and leaves.
• When the temperature is high or extremely dry, friction from rubbing branches can cause forest fires in some cases.

Consequences of Disasters

• Individuals are affected literally (by loss of life, injuries, health, and disability) as well as mentally.
• The destruction of property, human settlements, and infrastructure, among other things, causes massive economic damage.
• Disasters can change the natural environment, causing habitat loss for many plants and animals and causing ecological stress, which can lead to biodiversity loss.
• Following natural disasters, food and other natural resources, such as water, frequently become scarce, resulting in food and water shortages.
• People are relocated as a result of the disaster, and the displaced population frequently faces several problems in new settlements; as a result, the poor become even more destitute.
• Disaster raises the amount of susceptibility, multiplying the impact of the disaster.

Major Disasters in India

• The Kashmir floods of 2014 killed about 500 people in Srinagar, Bandipur, Rajouri, and other parts of J&K.
• The Uttarakhand Flash Floods in 2013 killed around 5,000 people in Govindghat, Kedar Dome, and the Rudraprayag region of Uttarakhand.
• The Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) killed around 2 lakh people in southern India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, as well as Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
• Gujarat Earthquake (2001) killed around 20,000 people in Bhuj, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Kutch, Surat, Surendranagar, Rajkot district, Jamnagar, and Jodia districts.
• The Odisha Super Cyclone or Paradip cyclone (1999) killed around 10,000 people in the coastal districts of Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, and Ganjam.
• The Great Famine (1876-1878) killed around 3 crore people in Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Bombay. Even now, it is regarded as one of India’s biggest natural disasters of all time.
• Coringa Cyclone (1839), which devastated the Andhra Pradesh region of Coringa, and the Calcutta Cyclone (1737) are two more examples of natural disasters that the country has encountered in the past.
• Between 1770 and 1943, the Bengal Famine devastated Bengal, Odisha, and Bihar, killing about a million people.