Hazards and Disasters | UPSC Mains: Internal Security & Disaster Management PDF Download

What is a Hazard?

• Any phenomenon that has the potential to cause disruption or damage to people and their environment
• When hazard involves elements of risks, vulnerabilities and capacities, they can turn into disasters.

What is a Disaster?

• Disaster is a sudden, calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, and destruction and devastation to life and property.
• It refers to a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence from natural or man-made causes, which is beyond the coping capacity of the affected community.

So How Does a Disaster Differ From a Hazard?

• A disaster takes place when a community is affected by a hazard. Disaster is basically the consequence of hazard.
• A hazardous geophysical event becomes a disaster only when there is interaction with the humans.  If there is no interaction there would not be any disaster. For example, a volcanic eruption in a remote unpopulated area or a landslide in an unsettled land.
• A hazard is perceived event which threatens both life and property. A disaster is a realization of this hazard.
• Hazards may be inevitable but disasters can be prevented.

What is vulnerability?
Vulnerability refers to the inability to withstand the effects of a hostile environment i.e. the propensity of things to be damaged by a hazard.

Classification Of Hazards:

• Natural hazards: are naturally-occurring physical phenomena caused either by rapid or slow onset events having atmospheric, geologic and hydrologic origins on solar, global, regional, national and local scales. Example: cyclone, tsunami etc.
• Quasi natural hazards: arise through the interaction of natural processes and human activities. Example: smog, desertification etc.
• Man-made hazards: Hazards arising directly from human activities. Example: accidental release of radiation from nuclear installations.

Classification Of Disasters:

Disasters are broadly classified into Natural disasters and Man-made Disasters

• Natural Disasters: are the consequences or effects of natural hazards on human life. They represent a serious breakdown in sustainability and disruption of economic and social progress. Example: Earthquake, landslides, cyclones, floods etc.
• Man- made disasters: are also known as anthropogenic disasters and they occur as a result of human intent, error or as a result of failed systems. Example: Urban fire, rail and road accidents, bomb blasts etc.

Causes for Occurrence of Disaster

• Environmental degradation: Removal of trees and forest cover from a watershed area have caused, soil erosion, expansion of flood plain area in upper and middle course of rivers and groundwater depletion.
• Developmental process: Exploitation of land use, development of infrastructure, rapid urbanization and technological development have caused increasing pressure over the natural resources.
• Political issues: War, nuclear power aspirations, fight between countries to become super power and conquering land, sea and skies. These have resulted into wide range of disaster events such as Hiroshima nuclear explosion, Syrian civil war, growing militarisation of oceans and outer space.
• Industrialization: This has resulted into warming of earth and frequency of extreme weather events has also increased.

Impacts of Disaster

• Disaster impacts individuals physically (through loss of life, injury, health, disability) as well as psychologically.
• Disaster results in huge economic loss due to destruction of property, human settlements and infrastructure etc.
• Disaster can alter the natural environment, loss of habitat to many plants and animals and cause ecological stress that can result in biodiversity loss.
• After natural disasters, food and other natural resources like water often becomes scarce resulting into food and water scarcity.
• The disaster results in displacement of people, and displaced population often face several challenges in new settlements, in this process poorer becomes more poor.
• Disaster increases the level of vulnerability and hence multiply the effects of disaster.

Vulnerability Profile of India

• India is vulnerable, in varying degrees, to a large number of disasters. Around 59% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity.
• About 12% (over 40 million hectares) of its land is prone to floods and river erosion.
• Close to 5,700 kms, out of the 7,516 kms long coastline is prone to cyclones and tsunamis.
• 68% of its cultivable area is vulnerable to droughts; and, the hilly areas are at risk from landslides and avalanches.
• Moreover, India is also vulnerable to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) emergencies and other man-made disasters.
• Disaster risks in India are further compounded by increasing vulnerabilities related to changing demographics and socio-economic conditions, unplanned urbanization, development within high-risk zones, environmental degradation, climate change, geological hazards, epidemics and pandemics.
• Clearly, all these contribute to a situation where disasters seriously threaten India’s economy, its population and sustainable development.

Worst Disasters in India

• Kashmir Floods (2014) affected Srinagar, Bandipur, Rajouri etc. areas of J&K have resulted into death of more than 500 people.
• Uttarakhand Flash Floods (2013) affected Govindghat, Kedar Dome, Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand and resulted into death of more than 5,000 people.
• The Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) affected parts of southern India and Andaman Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka, Indonesia etc., and resulted in the death of more than 2 lakh people.
• Gujarat Earthquake (2001) affected Bhuj, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Kutch, Surat, Surendranagar, Rajkot district, Jamnagar and Jodia districts of Gujarat and resulted in death of more than 20,000 people.
• Odisha Super Cyclone or Paradip cyclone (1999) affected the coastal districts of Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Ganjam etc., and resulted into death of more than 10,000 people.
• The Great Famine (1876-1878) affected Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Bombay and resulted into death of around 3 crore people. Even today, it is considered as one of the worst natural calamities in India of all time.
• Coringa Cyclone (1839) that affected Coringa district of Andhra Pradesh and Calcutta Cyclone (1737) are some other instances of natural calamities faced by the country in the past.
• The Bengal Famine in the years 1770 and 1943 affected Bengal, Odisha, Bihar very badly and resulted into death of nearly 1 crore people.
• Bhopal Gas tragedy (December, 1984) is one of the worst chemical disasters globally that resulted in over 10,000 losing their lives (the actual number remains disputed) and over 5.5 lakh persons affected and suffering from agonizing injuries.
• In recent times, there have been
  (i) cases of railway accidents (Dussehra gathering on the railway tracks crushed by the trains in 2018),
  (ii) fire accidents in hospitals due to negligence and non implementation of existing mandatory fire safety norms,
  (iii) collapse of various infrastructure constructs like flyovers, metro tracks and residential buildings due to poor quality of construction, illegal addition of floors and recurring floods.
  (iv) Stampede at large public gathering like Kumbh Mela caused by poor people management and lack of adequate infrastructure to monitor and manage large crowd gathering.

Stages in Disaster Management

• Disaster Management efforts are geared towards disaster risk management.
• Disaster Risk Management implies the systematic process of using administrative decisions, organisation, operational skills, and capacities to implement policies, strategies and coping capacities of the society and communities to lessen the impact of natural hazards and related environmental and technological disasters.
• These comprise all forms all activities including structural and non- structural measures to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) adverse effects of hazards.
• There are three key stages of activities in disaster management:
  (i) Before a disaster: to reduce the potential for human, material, or environmental losses caused by hazards and to ensure that these losses are minimised when disaster strikes;
  (ii) During a disaster: to ensure that the needs and provisions of victims are met to alleviate and minimise suffering; and
  (iii) After a disaster: to achieve rapid and durable recovery which does not reproduce the original vulnerable conditions.
• The different phases of disaster management are represented in the disaster cycle diagram.