Introduction Uttarakhand is a mountainous land with more than 60 percent as forest (Guha, 2006). High Himalayan peaks and glaciers cover the northern part of Uttarakhand (Riley & William, 2005). Climatic conditions and forest coverage vary greatly with height. Glaciers are at the highest point and the subtropical forests at the lowest point (Riley & William, 2005). One moves from ice and bare rock at the top to alpine shrub and meadows then to sub-alpine conifer forests (Guha, 2006). Due to agricultural activities and massive infrastructure, most of the lowland forests have been cleared to pave way (Riley & William, 2005). Human activities in the state are believed to be the cause of environmental imbalance resulting in the frequent occurrences of disasters in the state. Natural disaster From 14th to 17th June 2013, the northern part of the Indian state of Uttarakhand received heavy rainfall (Sharma, 2013). Due to the continuous downpour, the Charabari glacier melted leading to the flooding of Mandakini river (Sharma, 2013). The floods resulted in a massive scale of destruction to property and loss of human life. The official reports indicate deaths of 822 people, and 1800 missing persons (Sharma, 2013). Damaged houses were found to be 2232 in number. One hundred and fifty four bridges and 1520 roads were completely swept away rendering them impassable (Sharma, 2013). After Tsunami in 2004, the June 2013 flooding became another worst natural disaster (Sharma, 2013). Disaster Causes and Possible Prevention A common occurrence in Northern India is the summer monsoons winds (Guha, 2006), which in turn cause heavy downpours and floods. The sudden change in rainfall patterns is attributed to global warming (Riley & William, 2005). Stu... ... middle of paper ... ... such occurrences. However, the government of Uttrakhand never enforced environmental related laws. People were allowed to engage in environmental destructive activities, which precipitated to the June 2013 floods. If people were educated on dangers of deforestation, unplanned buildings, and outdated cultural activities, the damage caused would have been minimal. Works Cited Guha, R. (2006). The unquiet woods: ecological change and peasant resistance in the Himalaya. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. Sharma, Ravi (2013). "Uttarakhand Floods Wash out Hill Tourism, Hotel Occupancy as Low as 5-10% despite 50% Lower Rates." The Economic Times. The Economic Times, 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. Riley, Laura; William Riley (2005). Nature's Strongholds: The World's Great Wildlife Reserves. Vol. 208. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-12219-9.
Emanuel, K., Sundararajan, R., & Williams, J. (2008). HURRICANES AND GLOBAL WARMING. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 89(3), 347-367. doi:10.1175/BAMS-89-3-347 Retrieved from EBSCOhost
The destruction caused by these natural disasters made the people feel despair as well as suffer. After the monsoon Rukmani thought about the destruction caused, “Many of our neighbours fared much worse than we had. Several were homeless, and of a group of men who sheltered under a tree when the storm began six had been killed by lightning” (Markandaya 41). Markandaya shows the suffering through the homeless, and the despair through death of people who must have families grieving for them. The author also wrote, “The drought continued until we lost count of the time. Day after day the pitiless sun blazed down, scorching whatever still struggled to grow and baking the earth hard until at last it split and great irregular fissures gaped the land” (Markandaya 76). Markandaya shows the destruction of the land and crops through the use of imagery and details. In sum, the author shows the despair and suffering through natural disasters and the peoples reaction to
The sewage is completely backed up; causing unpleasant smelling calamities among the areas it operates in. Poor sewage contributes to pollution by ending up in other bodies of water through runoff, in which the heavily contaminated water may introduce excess amounts of dangerous substances that can cause events, such as algal blooms, and render life impossible. Sewage is not the only problem, as deforestation, especially after the 2010 earthquake, has been on the rise since many people needed to rebuild their homes. As reported by Anup Shah (2010), deforestation makes the topsoil vulnerable to the harsh environment around it. While the deforestation helped with providing shelter for the people who had lost their homes from the earthquake, it caused – and still causes – an economic set back. The forest protects the topsoil, and without it, it makes agriculture very difficult. Difficulty growing crops leads to hunger and more
The rise in temperature is having a significant impact on levels of rainfall, which in turn effects water run-off. Satellite observations since 1987 have shown that, as global temperatures have increased, global mean precipitation has increased in parallel at a rate of 7.4 ± 2.6% per ◦C ...
Interactions between human and the ecosystem have been operating for millenniums, and are impossible to eliminate, as each depends on the other in order to survive and flourish. However, as modern technology advances, as well as the increase in the world’s population, the need for natural resources begin to rise to an alarming rate which has started to gradually destroy the ecosystem. Recently, there has been an increase of sea levels in region whilst other rain-bounty areas have begun to experience their first droughts. This phenomenon is known as climate change. Climatologists have concluded that human activity has played a major role in contributing to the changes, therefore requiring extreme measures before this phenomenon evolves into a catastrophe. In this essay, we will discuss human activities that contributed to climate change, as well as addressing possible solutions to the phenomenon.
In India, this disaster brought lots of changes about environmental awareness. Furthermore, Broughton (2005) pointed out
In July 2013, more than 5,700 peoples were fall in to death list due to flood, affected to northern part of India. Indian troops were able to evacuate more than 110,000 peoples form effected that area. Environmental experts elaborated about the scene, that catastrophic were immerged due to imbalance of the ecological system. This happened...
Over the years, many damages related to flood have been reported. In France, floods have killed more than 100 people in the last 10 years. In less than three years, two catastrophic flash floods struck southern France. The first flash flood occurred in November 1999 and the second flash flood occurred in September 2002. The two flash floods cause 58 fatalities and properties damage of around 2.3 billion of Euros (Vinet, 2008). In United States of America, flash flood that occurred in June 2001 has cause $2 billion of damages to the urban states in Texas (Holder et al., 2002). All of this damages and loss serve as frightening examples of the threat that flood possess.
Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope in 1498. This marked the beginning of
Dutt, V.P. "The Emergency in India: Background and Rationale." Asian Survey (University of California Press) 16, no. 12 (December 1976): 1124-1138.
Imagine more than half of the population of Kenosha being over-taken by a deluge of water without warning or the ability to escape. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, occurred in the Indian Ocean off of the Samaritan coast, triggering the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. Before the tsunami, this region of the world was one of the most sought after vacation spots. After the record-breaking destruction, the pristine beach front and inviting residents were forever changed. The regional damage was so massive that it demanded a response on a global scale for rescue, recovery, stability, and to rebuild this treasured place.
This natural disaster caused at least killed more than 250,000 peoples in a single day, and at the same time leaving more than 1.7 million homeless. The scourge and loss that have been created by this disaster brought uncounted damages and many people lose their homes in the Indian Oceans. Their grief’s is shared around the world, and take this experience as a lesson and reminder to ourselves to become more grateful that we are safe from this powerful nature forces. Based on the research about this issue during that time, from the tourist resorts of south Thailand to Aceh’s city, to the fishing villages at Sri Lanka, and onward to the coasts of Africa, societies were provoke by the devastation and
The world today is faced with a huge problem; the problem of disappearing forests and associated habitats. While global warming is on the rise due to higher levels of greenhouse gases being emitted all the time from large-scale industrialization and to accommodate the never-ending expansion of the world population, the depletion of the CO2 absorbers, trees and plants, is also to blame. Hundreds of species of animals and plants are going extinct, while many are being recorded down in the list of endangered/protected species every year. Sundarbans is one of the biggest examples of human exploitation on forests and its flora and fauna in the world. This amazingly diverse and resource-rich ecoregion was declared a reserved forest
Floods are the most common natural disaster as well as the leading cause of natural disaster fatalities worldwide. (Doocy S., Daniels A., Murray S., & Kirsch TD., 2013). Schanze et al., 2006, also indicate that flooding is one of the most threatening natural hazards in the world. Musa and Usman, (2013) assert that, flooding has the largest damage potential and affects a larger number of people when compared to other natural disasters. According to Munich, 2015, due to flood disaster, there have been a proportionate increase in economic losses, loss of human lives and livelihoods, environmental damages and destruction to social infrastructure during the last forty years. The annual average of floods, 127 in the previous
Climate change is an inevitable phenomenon that is being experienced globally in various forms such as temperature rise. Sea level rise, droughts, floods, hurricanes, landslides, etc. According to the forth assessment report of the IPCC project even with immediate implementation of mitigation strategies global climate change will continue for decades. Climate change is inflicting serious consequences on human wellbeing and will continue to inflict damages in the future. It is estimated that mean global temperature will rise by 1.8 ºC - 4.0 ºC by end of the 21st century (Izaurraade, 2009). A new global climate model predicts that in the coming decade the surface air temperature is likely to exceed existing records (Smith et al., 2007). Growing season temperatures in the tropics and subtropics by end of the 21st century will exceed the most extreme temperature recorded in the history (Battistic and Rosamond, 2009).