The HKH Snow Update 2025 highlights a significant decline in seasonal snow across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, with snow persistence 23.6% below normal — the lowest in 23 years. This trend, now in its third consecutive year, threatens water security for nearly two billion people. All twelve major river …
Massive releases of agents intentionally or unintentionally can be disruptive to the lines of individuals at many levels. In 1984, the release of toxic Methylisocyanate gas had occurred suddenly and without warning from the union carbide plant in Bhopal. This disaster had created thousands of casualties thereby overwhelming local, health …
This book is one of four reports intended to provide a quick overview of the current status of disaster preparedness planning in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan including the documents, plans, and legal instruments in place and the institutions governing their implementation. It includes a summary of the conclusions of …
This book is one of four reports intended to provide a quick overview of the current status of disaster preparedness planning in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan including the documents, plans, and legal instruments in place and the institutions governing their implementation. It includes a summary of the conclusions of …
In the recent past, most Asian countries have greatly improved their capacities to monitor hazards and to warn, evaluate and provide emergency relief to victims of disasters. As a result, the number of lives lost to disasters such as floods, storms and extreme temperature has decreased significantly. However, the vulnerability …
The study aims at evaluating the degree of success in relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities undertaken after the supercyclone and ascertain the achievements and the progress from the perceptions of the affected people.
technology cannot always substitute sound preparedness on the ground; Indonesia learnt it the hard way when a tsunami triggered by an earthquake off the island of Java killed hundreds of people last month. An interim tsunami warning system declared operational in the Indian Ocean region barely a month ago did …
floods triggered by torrential rains in Assam since the last week of May have displaced at least 15,000 people and snapped road and rail communications in the state. The rising Brahmaputra river and its tributaries have inundated at least 50 villages in the districts of Nagaon, Tinsukia, Karimganj and Hailakandi. …
The objectives of the Disaster Management Plan are to ensure that disaster management is organised to facilitate planning, preparedness, operational coordination and community participation.
Blunder tourism: Six months after the tsunami disaster, the inhabitants of Arugam Bay on Sri Lanka's east coast are protesting a government move ostensibly aimed at creating a safety buffer zone against any future disaster of the kind. The government is reclaiming their land on the ground that any construction …
A succession of severe natural disasters has wreaked havoc in the poverty-ridden state of Orissa. First the state experienced a severe flood in the august, 1999 affecting six coastal blocks. Next came the severe cyclonic storm on 17-18th October 1999, which hit the coastal district causing widespread and unprecedented damages …
tsunami-hit Kerala is witnessing a hot debate on the effectiveness of sea walls. The state government has requested the Union government to provide it Rs 757 crore for reconstruction and rehabilitation work. A sizeable portion of this will be spent on sea wall construction off the coast at Kollam and …
At 6.29 am, on the morning of December 26, 2004 an undersea earthquake erupts in Sumatra, triggering off tidal waves called tsunami. A minute later, the India Meteorological Department (imd) gets the news. In 15 minutes, imd tracks the tsunami to the Indonesian coastline. But they make no attempt to …
The monitoring and management of the Indian coastline has come under sharp focus after the tsunami disaster. There is now a strong demand to implement the Coastal Regulatory Zone (crz) notification of 1991. Let us look at why protecting coastal ecology is so critical. Natural protectors, such as sand dunes …
The Indian ocean covers 73,556,000 sq km, or 20 per cent of the world’s surface. Aspects like oceanography, geophysical phenomena, undersea exploration and economic and military uses have a bearing on ocean behaviour. How cognisant are our experts with this large water body? Other than isolated research programmes associated with …
It would be naive to assume that disasters will stop. We cannot change the nature of disasters. What we can change, certainly control, is the scale that a disaster wreaks. This is precisely what disaster preparedness
Scientists believe that the Sumatra earthquake made the earth wobble on its axis and permanently accelerated the Earth's rotation, shortening a day by a fraction of second and permanently altering the regional map. The devastating undersea earthquake off Sumatra in Indonesia has brought about some striking changes in the Indian …
Disasters are not predictable. They follow no standard operating procedures. Disaster preparedness is about managing the unknown, not a science but a social behaviour that’s responsive, predictive and imaginative.• Effective disaster management depends on four factors: • Preparedness: knowing where and when disaster will hit • Mitigation: through measures like …
Year: 2001 Total natural disasters: 701 Percentage occurrence in Asia: 40 Total fatalities: 25,000 Percentage deaths in Asia: 85 Total economic loss: US $36 billion Economic loss in Asia: US $14 billion These grim statistics were presented by H C Shah of us-based Risk Management Solutions Inc at the recently …
What are the main findings of the psychosocial assessment of the Marathwada earthquake survivors? One out of every three persons suffers from psychological distress. 65 per cent have been impaired by functional limitations. Such disability reduces a victim's functionality by one-third. So each such patient has lost 12,000 working days …
with the southeastern parts of Bangladesh experiencing a number of mild-to-moderate tremors since July 27, it is feared that a major earthquake is set to rock the region in the near future. Significantly, Bangladesh
