Judgment of the National Green Tribunal, May 27, 2025 in the matter of Sumit Saini Vs Shree Ram Steel Industries & Others. Sumit Saini, resident of village Damla, District Yamuna Nagar, Haryana had sent a letter petition dated May 14, 2022 to the NGT. The application said that around 25 …
No small buses Sri Lanka's Western Province Transport Authority has decided to bid farewell to the minibuses with less than 26 seats, which are still transporting passengers on the roads of the Western Province. The authority has set June 30, 2007, as the final deadline. It further plans to provide …
Orissa has a long history of cyclones. Devastation and death toll were very high during 1999 super cyclone. The response to the cyclone in India and from abroad was also tremendous. The objective of this paper is to assess the activities of the government and NGOs providing relief, rehabilitation and …
After the deluge, it's usThe bustle's gone out of Tharangambadi. The once-prosperous Dutch-controlled port was before last year's tsunami a contented fishing village
A year has passed since the killer tsunami devastated the islands, but the Rs 600-crore corpus set aside by the Central government for rehabilitation of those who lost their homes, is yet to be utilised. The reason: the Centre can't make up its mind on the design for tribal housing, …
The recent tsunami has again shown that India lacks an effective disaster management system. Debates over how best to create such a system have again heated up in the aftermath of the tragedy. Technological solutions to forewarn disasters as well as to reduce reaction time have also been mooted. But …
The new millennium began disastrously: an earthquake struck Bhuj, Gujarat on January 26 2001. India had barely recovered from the seismic calamity when a tsunami hit the southern coasts on December 26, 2004. In this context, let us not forget that other coastal areas are equally vulnerable to tsunamis. Scientific …
In a nation where it took a Bhopal to enact an umbrella environment protection act, it is not surprising the tsunami devastation has precipitated moves for a national disaster management law. One still should not complain: wisdom in hindsight is any day better than no wisdom at all. However, the …
Scientists and seismologists were unprepared for the Latur earthquake in 1993 as Latur had never figured in the country's seismic map. But 10,000 people were killed. Following Latur, Jabalpur in 1997, Chamoli in 1999 and Kutch in 2001 killed about 20,000 people and destroyed property worth almost Rs 14,000 crore. …
Holistic and pro-active approach towards prevention, mitigation and preparedness Each ministry/department of the central/state government to set apart appropriate funds under Plan for specific schemes addressing vulnerability reduction and preparedness In a shelf of projects, mitigation be given priority and mitigation measures be built into on-going schemes Mitigation be in …
Notified in 1991, the coastal regulation zone (crz) has been amended several times. Seven government committees have been set up to review this most contentious piece of regulation, under pressure from various states and agencies. The amendments are as follows: August 18, 1994: Relaxation of crz area from 500 metres …
This very-high-intensity cyclone (T-7 in the Dvorak Scale of T-1 to T-8) was rare in the northern Indian Ocean region. 10 days before the super-cyclone, a cyclone with a wind speed of 200 kilometre per hour (kms/hr) hit the Orissa coast. The India Meteorological Institute issued warnings of another
large-scale destruction caused by natural disasters like earthquakes and cyclones has forced the Union government to take a hard look at the country's building construction rules. Consequently, the Bureau of Indian Standards (bis) recently revised the National Building Code (nbc), making it "more comprehensive' so that disaster-preparedness is ensured. This …
If this is world's best in photojournalism, then it is shocking. Make no mistakes. Most of the photographs, featured at the Annual World Press Photo Exhibition at Delhi, are in fact quite excellent. And that intensifies the disgust. What a waste of talent! For the first thing that struck this …
two years ago, the earth in Gujarat shook and buildings crumbled. Since then, as many as 1108 tremors of 3 and above on the Richter scale have been recorded in the same region. Humans do not feel a tremor of 3 and below; only seismographs can record them. But the …
IT IS ironic that earthquakes should extract such a high human cost in India, which pioneered the framing of building codes for seismic areas in 1962. When the Japanese city of Kobe was rocked in 1995, the death toll was 6,400 as compared to about 30,000 lives lost during the …
earthquake-resistant building codes came to the rescue of the residents of Seattle and prevented large-scale damage, when an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck the city on February 28. The quake was the city's first major test of the building policy, known as seismic retrofitting. "Seattle's regularly-updated building …
There cannot be a bigger irony. As the nation was preparing to smugly display its military might and scientific prowess on Republic Day, a mighty earthquake flattened a large part of Gujarat. The quake, however, did not quite shake the ruling elite, who till afternoon participated in the long ceremonial …
D eath and earthquakes do not come by appointment. However, an earthquake gives definitive indications of its arrival. In Gujarat, there were many. A 4.2 magnitude quake rocked the Rann of Kachhch on December 24, 2000. Its epicentre was 22 km away from Bhuj. Bhavnagar, near Bhuj, also felt several …
T he Gujarat earthquake has proved that even in the highly seismic zones like Bhuj, Uttarakhand and the Northeast, our preparedness and crisis management is a monumental failure. Bhuj is one of the 13 hotspots on India's seismic hazard map that was prepared three years ago. The assessment was that …
