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CHAPTER III
THE DIFFERENT HUES OF DISASTERS
3.1 Introduction
The history of mankind is a continuous record of disastrous calamities. Some
of these are beyond the control of human-beings whereas others are man-made and
within his control. These calamities disrupt and destroy peaceful human life, its
prosperity and well-being.1 2
India, with its vast territory and large population, experiences many disasters
annually and these disasters have common roots in the natural, socio-economic and
political environment of the region as a whole. The Indian sub-continent, which is
one of the most disaster-prone areas in the world, is a land of geographical and
climatological extremes.3 So it comes as no surprise that, of its total area, an
estimated 28 percent is drought prone, about 65 percent earthquake prone and about
40 million hectares of landmass prone to floods, and the country’s 7516 kilometers
coastline is a favourite whipping boy of cyclones with high-velocity winds and heavy
rainfalls pummelling the coastal states causing incalculable damage by killing scores
and destroying entire fishing fleets and communities every year.4
Compounding the variety of natural disasters is the heterogeneity of man­
made disasters. Industrial accidents, fires, epidemics, communal riots, etc. pepper the
country and terror activities add fuel to the fire.
1 S.N.Kulkami, “Famines, Droughts and Scarcities in India”, Allahabad: Chugh Publications, 1990,
p.L
2 Monica Trujillo, Amado Ordonez, Rafael Hernandez, “Risk-Mapping and Local Capacities: Lessons
from Mexico and Central America”, Oxford: Oxfam Publications, 2000, p.30.
3 Biswaroop Das, “Some Aspects of Disasters Mitigation and Management in India”, vol. 48,I.J.P.A.,
2002, p.185.
4 S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, “Disaster Response in India: An Overview”, vol.63,1.J.S.W.,
2002, pp. 152-153.
74
The resultant disaster related loss figures in India, though by and large
unnoticed by the general public, are quite disheartening: every year the average loss
of human life is around 3,600; crop area affected is 1.42 million hectares and houses
damaged are 2.36 million. Thus since decades, one after another, disasters have
shattered this sub-continent with irreparable loss of life and property.5
The list of hazards that turn into disasters is a long one and the categorization of
disasters varies according to geographical and social settings in which they are
located. Every disaster adds a new dimension to human sufferings and the realities
that confront disaster-affected communities often challenge the conventional
academic definitions and classifications.6 7 8
In the absence of any rigid official classification, observations from the field
suggest several catagories of disasters according to various criteria based on different
factors. Amongst them, the most classic eatagorisation being Natural and HumanMade disasters is based on the nature or origin of the hazard. And the other
classifications are: Sudden/Rapid disasters and Gradual/Slow/Creeping disasters
based on the occurrence or onset of the hazard; Major and Minor disasters9 based
10
on
the geographical magnitude or scope of impact on the number of people; Single event
and Compound events disasters10 based on numbers or the chain of hazards that
culminate into a disaster.11
5 Subhradipta Sarkar and Archana Sharma, “The Disasters in Waiting?”, Lawyers Collective, AugustSeptember 2006, p.27.
6 S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, Supra note 4, p.153
7 For example, earthquakes, tsunamis, tropical storms, industrial and transport accidents, etc.
8 For example, droughts, famines, desertification, environmental degradation, pollution, climate
change, etc.
9 This classification is highly criticized for the reason that, some authorities try to use the number of
fatalities and the damage-destruction potential, as a yard stick to calculate the size of the disaster which
is quite misleading and inhuman in its approach because from the perspective of a disaster victim, it is
not particularly useful to distinguish between minor and major disasters.
10 Compound disasters are those events that happen sequentially or occur simultaneously. For example,
in 1996, the flood-accumulated water in the state of Rajasthan, became an ideal breeding ground for
75
But currently, the most popularly accepted classification is the classic
catagorisation of disasters as natural and human-made. Practically, there are no sharp
boundaries and no real dividing lines between these two disaster types. Instead, there
are much overlappings in the details of these phenomena which render thenclassification more difficult and complicated.12 In fact, this catagorisation is purely for
explanatory purposes with a view for better understanding of the events.
Therefore, especially for the large number of people in several states of India,
the distinction between disasters is academic: for them, almost all disasters are major
and occur constantly, irrespective of their nature or origin.13
3.2 Natural Disasters
A natural environment is an abode of geophysical complexities which among
other things continues to produce a variety of natural events like cyclones,
earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, floods, etc.14 These events are those
powerful elements of the physical environment which are harmful to man and that
those are caused by forces extraneous to him. They are generally associated with the
geographical setting, the geological history, the typographical features of the area and
the ones triggered by a cumulative effect of a number of such factors.15
mosquitoes which ignited vector proliferation, leading to the outbreak of malaria epidemic. The latter
took a heavy toll, far more than that of the flood-disaster itself
These disasters create problems of classification as the multiple events are reported under
more than one heading, like cyclones and floods often occur together, whilst landslides are associated
with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, storms and heavy rainfalls as well. So, to avoid double counting,
such compound events are recorded once only according to the major cause of impact
11 Surinder Jaswal, “Psychosocial Aspects ofDisasters: An Introduction", vol. 63,1.J.S.W., 2002, p.141
12 David Alexander, “Confronting Catastrophe”, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, p,21
13 S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, “Disaster Response in India: An Overview', S.Parasuraman
and P.V.Unnikrishan, (ed) in, “India Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative", New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2000, p.4
14 Biswaroop Das, Supra note 3, p. 183.
15 P.C.Sinha, “Encyclopaedia of Disaster Management Series-Technological Disasters", New Delhi:
Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1998, p.37
76
Though natural disasters are predictable to some degree, they are not possibly
stoppable or controllable. So universally, they are seen and understand as ‘Acts of
God’. They cause great damage to both natural and built-up environment. The extent
of loss that natural disasters wreak is not limited to economic losses, and loss of lives
and homelessness, but they result in various intangible, acute life-long psychological
disturbances due to bereavement.16
Natural events are either divided into endogenous earth origin viz., earthquake
and volcanic hazards, and exogenous earth origin viz., floods, drought, avalanches,
etc., or
broadly classified into atmospheric,17 hydrological,18 and geological19
hazards. But in practice, the most severe hazards arise from compound or synergistic
effects of any of these hazards, as when cyclonic winds and rains produce storm
surges and floods, or when earthquakes set off landslides or flash floods, etc.20
In the study undertaken, under the above mentioned heading, natural disasters
of sudden impact, that are common to the Indian scenario only are discussed and dealt
with.
3.2.1 Earthquakes
Earthquakes are among the deadliest and most destructive of natural disasters.
They unleash energies on the scale of nuclear explosions.21 Of all natural calamities,
earthquakes stand alone because they are least predictable in space, time, magnitude
and frequency. Although the more vulnerable areas are broadly earmarked, they are
16 Kishor.C.Samal, Shibalal Meher, Nilakantha Panigrahi, Srikanta Mohanty, “State, NGOs and
Disaster Management”, Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2005, p.21
17 For example, rains, glaze (freezing rains), hail storms, blizzards, lightnings, cyclones, tornadoes, heat
waves, cold spells, fog, or high velocity winds.
18 For example, floods, tsunamis, glacier advance, storm surges, etc
19 For example, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, mudslides, avalanches, subsidences,
erosions, silting or shifting sands.
20 Keith Smith, “Environmental Hazards-Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster2nd ed., London:
Routledge, 1996, pp. 17-18.
21 An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on the Ritcher Scale, releases energy almost equal to that of the
Hiroshima atomic bomb.
77
not confined to specific places or times, for they come as a bolt from the blue,
anywhere, anytime and kill and maim thousands of people and devastate all that the
civilizations have built with efforts for many years.22
These destructive earthquakes originate in the interior of the earth, and are
causal by earth movements, especially the movement of some fifteen recognized
lithospheric plates or discontinuous masses of the earth’s crust: the visible parts of the
plates being continents.23 These vast land plates literally float on an ocean of semimolten rock which surrounds a solid inner core, the main source of the earth’s heat24
The plates are in constant motion at perhaps 20-50mm/yr, moving either, side by side
(transcursion)25 or, towards each other (collision/convergence)26 or away from each
other (divergence/shearing).
97
So, most of the earthquakes are generated along the tectonically active
margins of these major plates where stresses are caused by their movements and
sometimes they also occur at weak points within the plates. Hence the abrading
stresses, due to movements, release the internal energy on the earth’s surface by
22 B.G.Deshpande, “Disaster Management in Earthquakes”, R.B.Singh, (ed) in, “Disaster
Management’, Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2000, pp. 159-160.
23 Ibid., p.160
24 Y.S.Gill, “The science ofDisasters”, S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan , (ed) in, “India Disasters
Report-Towards a policy Initiative ”, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 87
25 Transcursion takes place when two plates slide past each other laterally along a series of tear or
transcurrent faults. For example, as m the San Andreas fault between the Pacific and North American
plates and the Alpine fault in New Zealand separating the Pacific and Fiji plates.
26 Collision/convergence occurs, either when plates collide or converge and reduce is size, for example,
the Himalayan mountain ranges which were formed when the Indo-Australian plate collided with the
Eurasian plate : the Indian sub continent, once part of a super continent called Gondwanaland, which
consisted also of present day Africa, Australia and Antarctica, broke away about 100 million years ago
and crawled northwards and slid under the Asian landmass, forming the Himalayan ranges, when its
upper layers peeled and thrust upward.
Or the above mechanism takes place when one of the two plates bends down to pass beneath
the other in a subduction zone, usually beneath the oceans, thereby triggering earthquakes and
notorious tsunamis.
And also as per the researches from the US-based University of California, quakes are also
generated by strong tides in subduction areas with faults occurring at shallow depths. In particular, in
the subduction zones near the coasts of Japan.
27 Divergence or shearing occurs when tectonic plates move apart horizontally and grow in area, for
example, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
78
ultimately fracturing the rocks along the weak planes (the ‘faults’) through incredibly
powerful ‘shockwaves’ in upward and lateral jerks causing devastation. Further, the
fractured rocks jostle for position in a series of ‘aftershocks’, causing more damage,
sometimes greater than the original spasms.
OR
These shockwaves and aftershocks give rise to a variety of earthquake
phenomena like,
ground shaking,
fruit
rupture, tectonic deformation,
soil
liquefaction,29 changes in groundwater hydrology, land and mudslides, rock fells,
submarine avalanches, snow and ice avalanches, tsunamis, and seiches.30 Sometimes,
these phenomena are minor and are not even felt or noticed by the people. But when
they exceed a certain limit in magnitude,
damage occurs in various proportions on
the surface affecting man and his built environment.32 For example, loss of life and
property due to collapse of buildings, bridges, dams, tunnels and other rigid
structures, rupture of communication lines, pipelines and other utilities, fires and
explosions due to leakage of stored chemicals and gases, and floods from water
bodies.33
28 Ravi Chopra, “Earthquakes: Reconfiguring Lives and Landscapes”, S.Parasuraman and
P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in, “India Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative”, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2000, p. 201.
29 Soil liquefaction is the process by which water-saturated sediments temporarily lose strength,
because of strong shaking, and behave as a fluid, usually at depths less than ten meters and thus
causing damage to pipelines, bridge piers and other structures with shallow foundations, especially
those located near river channels or canal banks on floodplains.
30 Seiches are smaller water waves created in lakes and reservoirs, usually at some distance from the
earthquake source that cause a flood when water spills over.
31 Earthquake Magnitude is described as the total energy of the seismic waves radiating outwards from
the earthquake, at a normalized distance of 100 kilometers from the source. The source point for
earthquake measurement is the epicentre, which lies on the earth’s surface directly above the
hypocenter and the latter is the point of rupture which occurs anywhere between the earth’s surface and
a depth of 700 kilometers.
The magnitude is assessed on one of the various scales based on the work of Charles Ritcher. An
earthquake of magnitude 8 (M8) represents seismograph amplitudes ten times larger than an earthquake
of M7. Each successive whole number on the Ritcher Scale represents an increase of about thirty times
in the energy released.
32 B.G.Deshpande, Supra note 22, p. 160.
33 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p. 124.
79
Thus, earthquakes top the scale of immediate mortality and structural
destruction. They dominate the graph of lethality in the whole of the world by
affecting at least thirty-five countries.34 Between 1970 and 1990, they killed more
than 4,00,000 people world-wide and caused overall economic losses estimated at 65
billion US$.
About two-thirds of the world’s large earthquakes occur in the so called ‘Ring
of Fire’ Pacific belt. The other most important earthquake zone stretches from
Indonesia through the Andaman Nicobar islands, the Himalayas, the Middle East and
the Alps to the Western Mediterranean and North Africa. And around 75percent of the
world’s earthquake deaths occur in this zone, which is more densely populated than
the circum-pacific belt.35
India, belonging to one of the world’s most active seismic swathe, the
Himalayan-Alpine belt, experiences earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or more on the
Ritcher Scale on a regular basis. More than 65 percent of India’s land mass is
vulnerable to earthquakes of different intensities.36 According to the seismic zoning
map of India, there are five seismic zones graded and demarcated in accordance with
their vulnerability to earthquakes: most severe or very high risk zone (Zone V) liable
to seismic intensity 9 on Ritcher Scale; high risk zone (Zone IV) liable to seismic
intensity 8; moderate risk zone (Zone III) liable to quakes of intensity 7; low risk zone
(Zone II) with probable seismic intensity of 6-7; and very low risk zone (Zone I) with
quake intensity below 6.37 Much of India-57 percent of the land surface lies in the
34 Debarati Guha Sapir, “Disasters in South Asia”, S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in,
“India Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative”, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, p.
25.
35 P.C.Sinha, “Encyclopaedia of Disaster Management Series-Introduction to Disaster Management',
New Delhi: Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1998, p. 87.
36 “65% ofIndia’s Terrainfound Quake-Prone”, Times oflndia, April 21,2007, p. 7
37 Amamath.K.Menon, “The Next Big One”, India Today, October 24,2005, p. 82.
80
high risk and moderate risk zones, 12 percent in the very high risk zone and the rest in
the low or very low category.38
To elucidate, they raze the Himalayan region39 and the Indo-Gangetie plains in
the north, the Seven Sister states in the north-east, the Gujarat belt in the west, the
Deccan plateau in the centre and the south, and the Andamans in the south- east end.
Thus, with the possible exception of parts of Rajasthan and bits of Karnataka, the
whole sub-continent is prone to tremors.40 Some of the country’s biggest quakes have
occurred in Jammu and Kashmir,41 Bihar,42 Uttar Pradesh,43 Gujarat,44 Maharashtra,45
North-eastern region,46 and the Andaman islands.47
Therefore of all natural disasters, earth-quakes are the only unintimidated
ones, who rarely announce their arrival in advance. Even the strongest quakes are
over in a matter of moments leaving behind death and devastation that occupy victims
and caregivers for years.48 The extent of damage and destruction is not proportionate
to an earthquake’s magnitude especially in a developing nation like India, for its
38 Anuradha Raman and Madhavi Tata, “ When the Plates go Crashing”, Outlook, October 24,2005,
p.44
9 To this day, the Indian plate is still barging into the Asian plate at about five centimeters every year.
Seismic studies show that great earthquakes have occurred along the length of the Himalayas since
centuries and more bigger ones are expected in the future with tremendous seismic stresses building up
in the region.
40 Anuradha Raman and Madhavi Tata, Supra note 38, pp. 44-46.
41 In Kangra (1905), an earthquake with 8.6(M) killed over 19,000 people, and in Pakistan Occupied
Kashmir(POK)region(2005), tremors with 7.6 (M) killed more than 1300 people in Baramulla,
Kupwara, Uri, Tangadhar and many more places.
42 In 1934, with a quake intensity of 8.3(M), 10,700 people were killed, and in 1988, an earthquake
measuring 6.6 (M) killed 1,400 people.
43 In 1991, about 2000 people were killed in a 7.0 (M) trembler in northern Uttar Pradesh hills, and in
1999 in Chamoli region, hundreds were killed in a 6.8 (M) earthquake
44 In Anjar (1956), a tremor with 7.0 (M) killed about 1200 people, and in 2001, a quake of 7.7 (M)
killed more than 14,000 people in Kutch, Ahmedabad and neighbouring towns and villages.
45 In Koyna (1967), a reservoir induced earthquake with 6.3 (M), killed about 2000 people, and in Latur
and Osmanabad (1993) more than 10,000 people lost their lives in a tremor of 6.5 (M).
46 In Assam, earthquake in Srimangal (1918) with 7.6 (M) and Dhubri (1930) with 7.1 (M); in
Arunachal Pradesh (1950) a quake with 8.5 (M); and in Manipur (1988) tremors with 6.6(M), claimed
scores of lives in the affected region.
47 These islands were destructed by tremors and tsunamis in 1941 and 2004 with earthquakes 8.5 (M)
and 9.3 (M) respectively, triggered in Sumatra Islands.
48 Ravi Chopra, Supra note 28.
81
impact is an unpredictable variable.49 The high losses are due to a combination of
several factors like, land topography, soil condition, ground movement frequency,
duration, the time of occurrence,50 plus prime deciding factors like, the quality of
structures and the local population density.51
Thus in the aftermath of earthquakes, the impacts are often widespread and the
effects ongoing. The threat of injury continues for weeks with the possibility of
repeated aftershocks. And disruptions are experienced for several years as survivors
are relocated and towns rebuilt.52
3.2.2 Tsunamis
Tsunamis are considered to be relatively rare events. Tsunamis or seismic sea
waves are the most characteristic earthquake-related hazards. The word ‘Tsunami’
comes from two Japanese words, ’tsu’ meaning port or harbour and ‘namV meaning
wave or sea.53 They savagely attack coastlines, claiming lives and destroying
properties.
According to British engineer Robert Mallet, one of the world’s first
“seismologists”, tsunamis are caused by underwater land slippages.54 They result from
tectonic displacement of the sea bed associated with large shallow focus earthquakes,
submarine volcanic eruptions or landslides under the oceans. But sometimes, they are
49 Ibid., p. 203.
50 Although the time or day when an event occurs may have little effect on the structural damage
caused, it can influence the number of casualties. For example, the 1992 earthquake at Erzincan,
Turkey, claimed only 547 lives, largely because it happened in the early evening when many people
were worshipping in local mosques which proved to be relatively earthquake-resistant. By contrast, the
1993 earthquake of similar magnitude in the state of Maharashtra killed 9,475 people, mainly because
it took place at night when most of them were sleeping in poorly constructed houses.
51 Keith Smith, supra note 20, p. 121.
52 N.R.Pande, S.S.Phadke, M.S.Dalal and M.M.Agashe, “Merited Health Care in Marathwada
Earthquake Disaster- Organisation ofServiced, vol. 61,1.J.S.W., 2000, p.631.
53 Chetan Kumar, “Tsunami”, The Indian Express, August 17,2005, p. 3.
54 P.C.Sinha, “Encyclopaedia of Disaster Management-Hydrological Disasters”, vol. 2, New Delhi:
Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1998, p. 103.
82
also caused by inland earthquakes or volcanoes near the ocean or large rock fells into
confined bays.
In simple terms, a tsunami is produced when there is an impulsive disturbance
of the earth’s crust that rapidly displaces a large mass of water.55 For example, the
great Asian tsunami of December 200456 was the result of the underwater earthquake
that occurred when the Indo-Australian plated plunged beneath the South-Eastern
Eurasian plate, whereby before the quake, the edge of the Eurasian plate was dragged
downward by the descending Indo-Australian plate and the tremor which released the
edge of the former plate sprang back up, setting off the deadly tsunami.57
A tsunami is not just a single wave but almost always a series of waves that
travel miles together from the epicenter of the earthquake58 in the deep open waters at
a speed of about 500-1000 km/hr. They are so low that they often pass ships and boats
in the open sea, unnoticed.59 As these waves approach the shallow waters near the
shore and run up the sloping sea floor, the increased frictional drag lowers their
wavelength, and as they slow, the waves adjust by compressing and increasing their
height. During this run-up phase, sometimes the waves very well attain heights in
excess of 20 meters.60
55 Erach Bharueha, “Environmental Studies”, Hyderabad: Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd., 2005, p.
151.
56 The Asian tsunami of 2004, one of the world’s deadliest tsunami in recorded history, killed an
estimated of 3,10,000 people along the Sumatra-Andaman islands and the coasts of Srilanka and
Southern India.
In India, the tsunami claimed over 10,273 lives and rendered more than 2,39,024 families
homeless by sweeping away 1,089 villages in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar
islands, Kerala and Pondicherry.
57 Ritu Gupta, “Tsunamis Unravelled', Down to earth, June 30,2005, p. 38
58 An analysis of December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean showed that it was so powerful that it
circled the globe at least twice, and swells ranging from a few centimeters to one meter were recorded
along the west coast of the US, the east coast of Brazil and distant locations.
59 In 1987, one of the Japan’s worst tsunami which was the result of an undo-sea quake killed about
27,000 people on the Sanriku coast of northern Honshu Island. During the disaster, the fishermen who
were far out in the sea did not notice the waves passing beneath their boats, but upon their return they
found their kin lost and villages destroyed.
60 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, pp.134-135
83
Peter Vemey, a writer on quakes and related matters, describes a “typical”
tsunami as follow: “First comes ‘the smooth one’, in which the sea gently rises
beyond the high tide mark. This is followed by a violent sucking sound as the sea
retreats, leaving rocks, reefs and sunken ships exposed, and anchored ships on dry
ground. Then with a huge roar comes a wave at a speed of upto 200 kph-depending on
the slope of the coast-sweeping everything before it. The water may remain high for
10-15 minutes or longer. Then with a great sucking noise, it withdraws, taking
wreckage out to sea. Following waves, moving at slower speeds, ‘come to finish the
job’.61
Thus the notorious tsunamis, with their tremendous water power, pose a threat
to several coastal countries world wide. The most active territory is the Circum Pacific region with the coasts of Japan,62 South America and the Aleutian Islands (off
Alaska) being the most vulnerable tsunami areas in the world.
Though the Pacific is the most dangerous tsunami area, one of the world’s
deadliest such event killed an estimated 2,00,000 people along India’s densely
populated Bengal coast in 1876.63 So accordingly, tsunamis are neither new, nor a rare
phenomena in India. According to the Department of Ocean Development, the Indian
waters have experienced tsunamis since decades, although not many on the scale. The
few recorded ones of the yesteryear have been noted in 1881 and 1883 in the Bay of
Bengal and in 1945 in the Arabian Sea.64
And for a few others, the department agrees that there are no proper official
records available. For instance, one such tsunami which was experienced in the
61 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 54, p.104
62 For centuries, Japan has been the most earthquake and tsunami affected country. A few major
tsunamis triggered by off-coast earthquakes occurred in: June 1896 with a loss of 27,000 lives; March
1933 with 6,000 lives lost; May 1960 with 142 dead; July 1993 with 200 dead; and the latest in March
2011 with a toll of over 24,000 lives.
63 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p.131
64 “Another Tsunami by Year-End? ”, The New Indian Express, September 28, 2005, p.6.
84
Andamans in 1941 during the Japanese invasions still remains unsubstantiated due to
lack of proper documentation. And today, the geological studies precisely show that
the Indo-Australian plate which runs along Australia, Indonesia and the Indian sub­
continent is very vulnerable to tremors and tsunamis, and is one of the most
dangerous tsunami regions in the world.65
Seismic sea waves are known to have great destructive force. Even
though, it is felt quite possible to predict with some accuracy the arrival time of
tsunami once the epicenter of the earthquake has been located, it becomes less easy to
predict wave behaviour when once they approach a shoreline.66 They work their
destruction in complex ways. Some come crashing over seaside settlements, crushing
and reducing buildings, bridges and sea walls to their foundations, and hurling ships,
boats, vehicles and timbers on to structures with their sheer height and weight. While
some others cause the water to rise gently over settlements, floating the buildings off
their foundations, and later, sweeping the buildings and people out to the sea with
violent backwash.
Thus, what so ever the mode of wave behaviour, the killer waves take the lives
of people and animals, destroy properties and cause pollution through spilling of oil
and other toxic materials.
These ghastly devastations from tsunamis are due to a few crucial factors like
the physical, social, and economic vulnerabilities of the local population, and the
destruction of natural protectors, such as sand dunes68 and mangrove forests69 formed
over centuries.70
65 Richard Mahapatra, “Beyond TsunamV, Down to Earth, January 31, 2005, p. 34.
66 Keith Smith, Supra note 60.
67 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 61.
68 Sand dunes are the natural bulwarks against strong sea winds, high waters and tidal waves like the
tsunamis and storm surges. But sand mining and tourism pressures have destroyed them everywhere.
85
Hence the tsunamis demonstrate the terrifying strength of surging waters, even
more drastically than floods and dam bursts.
3.2.3
Cyclones
Cyclones are nature’s means of circulating heat to the colder areas. But for
mankind, they are one of the worst natural calamities that befall on it.
The term ‘Cyclone ’ is derived from the Greek word kukloma meaning the coil
of a snake and is used to denote all tropical storms in the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal
and the Arabian Sea.71 Whilst the same storms are called ‘hurricanes’ in the
Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, ‘‘typhoons' in the Western Pacific
and the China Sea, ‘willy willy’ in Australia and ‘bagius ’ in the Phillipines.72
And since decades, these have been given names for convenience,73 for easy
recognition, particularly when there are more than one occurring at the same time, as
it always happens, while one is blowing off, another is just being bom.74 For example,
hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Dennis (2005), typhoon Mawar (2005), tropical cyclone
Pyaar (2005), hurricanes Jeanne, Ivan, Francis, Charley (2004), hurricane Mitch
(1998), hurricane Andrew (1998), etc. are a few to mention. But when a
For example, the tsunami which struck the Kerala coast in 2004 proved costly due to the effects of sand
mining in the area which had reduced the sea and land distances.
69 Mangroves are the tiny forests along the coastlines, holding rich nutrients of the land and the sea, and
home to a variety of marine life, and are extremely crucial as they cushion the impact of tidal waves
and storm surges. For ©cample, die importance of mangroves came to be underlined most prominently
by the fact that many relief workers in tsunami affected regions reported that areas with mangroves and
other natural barriers like Pondicherry, had incurred less loss in life and property than Nagapattinam
and Cuddalore, where the tsunami waves went through the low lying areas that were occupied by
settlements instead of forests
70 Richard Mahapatra, Supra note 65, pp. 31-33.
71 Kishor.C.Samal, Shibalal Meher, Nilakantha Panigrahi, Srikanta Mohanty, Supra note 16, P. 21.
72 Ibid., p. 181.
73 Naming of cyclones has had an interesting history-it began in the early twentieth century when they
named them after saints and politicians who had Mien out of favour. During the 1930s, the
meteorologists named them after their wives and girlfriends, triggering protests from feminists groups.
But in the 1970s, the World Meteorological Department in Geneva Stipulated a list of names, both
men’s and women’s that would be circulated on a six year cycle.
And India, for which, it was a new concept, commenced naming since September 2004. It has
contributed names like Hawa, Agni, Patal, Baj, etc. Thus a list of names is maintained in alphabetical
order, country-wise.
74 Shubha Venkatesan, “OfNightmares and Names", the Indian Express, October 5,2005, p. 5.
86
cyclone/hurricane wreaks huge damage, like Katrina, its name is retired and not
repeated.75
These cyclones are a huge rotating mass of moisture air, spiraling inward into
the centre of the storm in the tropical oceans, that are 27 degrees centigrade or more
in temperature. They basically require warm waters and still air for their formation,
and have a life which varies from a few hours to almost three weeks, though they
usually last for five to ten days.76 They move 300-5000 kms per day over the ocean
gradually developing into vast whirl-winds of devastating intensity and extraordinary
violence. These whirl-winds produce strong currents to a depth of about 20-25 meters
in the sea, with the result that when the cyclones approach the coastal belt, the sea
level rises and inundates the low lying tracts in the coastal region. These sudden rises
in the sea surface associated with the cyclonic storms are called storm surges.
Finally during this phase, soon after crossing the coast, the cyclonic storms
begin to dissipate, due to increased frictional effects of land and lack of moisture
supply from warm oceanic surface, with heavy and continuous rains for a few hours
and intermittent showers for a day or two. It is after this phase, that the heavy
downpour of rainfall swollen the rivers and brings unprecedented floods in the river
valleys, deltaic and coastal plains; and in the uplands, the tanks which are filled with
run-off water from their catchments areas, result into flash floods due to embankment
breaches.
The death toll from cyclones, mostly due to drowning, exceeds that from any
other natural hazard. Thus, cyclones are rivaled only by earthquakes, as the most
devastating of natural calamities.
75 Sonu Jain, “Our Cyclones will also be named: Pyaar just hitAP', The Indian Express, September
22, 2005, p. 1.
76 Y.S.Gill, Supra note 24, p.86.
77 R.N.Pati, “Health, Environment and Development\ New Delhi: Ashish Publishing House, 1992, p.
191.
87
The Indian subcontinent, with a coastline of about 7,500 kms, is one of the
worst cyclone affected parts of the world. It is whipped and raked by high velocity
winds and heavy rainfalls annually. On an average, each year, about five-six tropical
cyclones form in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, out of which two-three turn
out to be very severe. The eastern coastline, compared to the western, is more prone,
for more cyclones are formed in the Bay of Bengal than in the Arabian Sea.78
Every year the eastern coastal states, viz., Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu
and West Bengal are continuously plummelled by cyclones that cause incalculable
damage. They are hit by nearly about 80 percent of the total cyclones generated in the
region, in the months of April-June and October-November, during the monsoon’s
on- set and retreat.79 The most severe ones that affected cruelly are the following: the
1996 cyclone along the east coast state of Andhra Pradesh, which killed 1,077 people
and damaged public buildings and structures worth over US$ 139 million;80 the 1999
Super cyclone that hit the Orissa coast and devastated nearly 50 percent of the state by
killing more than over 20,000 people and 3,50,000 cattle, and destroying completely
the coastal area’s infrastructure, houses and the fertile agricultural land.81
Thus, cyclones do most damage to structures with their strong violent winds,
over 200 kmph in speed, and most casualties and destruction come from coastal
inundations by storm surges82 followed by torrential rains and floods.
In India, cyclones batter the coastal regions as a result of a low depth ocean
bed topography and coastal configuration, specially the stretches along the Bay of
78 Erach Bharucha, Supra note 55, p.155.
79 IDR Team, “Cyclones: Trapped in A Spin Cycle”, S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in,
“India Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative”, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, p.
182.
80 S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, Supra note 13, p.7.
81 C.N.Ray and P.RRout, “Orissa Super Cyclone: Issues in Urban Disaster Management”, Nagarlok,
vol.33, 2001, p. 9.
82 Storm surges cause the most havoc. On an average, they kill seven times more people and damage
three times more crops than severe cyclones which are storm surge-free.
88
Bengal, which have the world’s shallowest waters.83 The losses are also due to large
scale destructions of mangroves, other saline forests84 and coral reefs; leveling of
coastal sand dunes; and proliferation of prawn ponds along the coast; all of which that
remove the shoreline’s natural protection and allow storm surges to reach people and
their property more quickly and forcefully. And ultimately, the blunt reality of the
relatively dense population and its poor economic conditions complete the gruesome
picture.85
3.2.4 Tornadoes
Tornadoes are another threat that occur mainly in the warm season. They
occur most frequently in North America, Italy, New Zealand and the United
Kingdom. A tornado, as opposed to a cyclone, is an extreme rarity in the Indian
subcontinent.
Tornadoes differ from cyclones in that they are often formal over land, are
smaller and have a shorter lifetime, ranging from a few minutes to more than an hour.
They are essentially storms, whirling dervishes accompanied by rains and
thunderstorms. Like cyclones, they are characterized by rapidly rotating, funnelshaped columns of air hanging from a billowing dark, rainmaking cloud.86
Although infrequent in the subcontinent, two coastal blocks in West Bengal
and Orissa were struck viciously in March 1998.87 The tornado razed the houses to the
ground, blew away animals and people alike, and uprooted trees and communication
83 IDRTeam, Supra note 79, p.182.
84 Cyclones created in the Bay of Bengal near Andaman Nicobar islands have never much affected
these islands because of the existence of thick saline forests which serve as both wind and wave
breakers.
85 C.N.Ray and P.R.Rout, Supra note 81, p. 17.
86 IDR Team, “Tornadoes on the East Coast”, S. Parasuraman and P.V. Unnikrishnan, (ed) in, “India
Disasters Report-Towards a policy Initiative”, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 198.
87 In Dantan block of Midnapore in West Bengal and Jaleswar block of Balasore in Orissa.
89
poles. In a sum total, it killed over a hundred people and reduced the affected villages
to rubble.88
Thus, tornadoes attaining wind speeds of 300 kmph or more, with only the
most violent ones lasting for more than an hour, leave a trail of destruction for about
fifty to hundred meters wide.89
3.2.4
Floods
Flooding is the most common of all environmental hazards and its history goes
back to early creation times.90
Aflood1 is defined as “a relatively high flow of water in a river, markedly
higher than the usual, and the inundation of low land which may result there from. It
is a body of water, rising, swelling and over-flowing on land, not usually thus
covered; and also a deluge or a freshet.”91
Floods have been an annual feature throughout the world, since time
immemorable, and ‘are’ even to this day. They occur frequently, almost every year,
affecting the communities to varying degrees, depending on the geographical, social
and economic setting of each country.92 Worldwide, the floods regularly claim over
20,000 lives per year and adversely affect around 75 million people. However, out of
the total loss figures, around 78 percent of it occurs in five developing countries:
India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Colombia.93
The Indian subcontinent, which faces floods every year and that which has
seen the world’s worst floods over the years, is the second most flood affected
88 Y.S.Gill, Supra note 24, p. 198.
89 IDR Team, Supra note 86 p.198.
90 According to the Bible, the first great flood destroyed the world except for a small band of people,
headed by Noah, who were saved in the Ark.
91 Dr.D.N.Tewari, “ Victims of Environmental Crisis”, Dehradun: EBD Educational Pvt. Ltd., 1987,
p.131.
92 Monica Trujillo, Amado Ordonez, Rafael Hernandez, Supra note 2, p. 17.
93 P.CSinha, Supra note 35, p. 89.
90
country in the world, after Bangladesh.94 Among all the disasters that occur in the
country, floods are the most frequently occurring natural disasters, due to the
irregularities of the monsoon. About 75 percent of the annual rainfall is concentrated
in three to four months of the monsoon season, and as a result there is very heavy
discharge from the rivers during this period causing widespread floods.
Approximately, more than 40 million hectares of land95 in the country has been
identified as being prone to floods.96
In a way almost all of India is flood affected to varying degrees. But the major
flood prone basins are Ganga, Brahmaputra and Mahanadi, and the most flood
affected states are: Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra
Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.97 A few destructive floods, worth mentioning are:
the Bihar floods of 1987, 2004, 2007 and 2008, which affected over 2.3 million
people; the great Mumbai floods of 2005, which killed round 900 people and brought
the Metro to a grinding halt ; the Gujarat floods of 2005, that damaged properties
worth 8,000 crores and killed hundreds of people and animals; the Assam floods of
1988, that took 226 lives and destroyed 4.89 lakh houses, and of 2011 which hit 200
villages affecting nearly two lakh population; etc.98
Thus floods, which are a regular feature in the subcontinent, cause
considerable damage to human-lives and cattle, houses and other buildings, crops,
94 M.Violita A.C., “Can the World be Rid offloods? Teaching about Disasters”, R.B.Singh, (ed) in,
“Disaster Management', Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2000, p.l 12.
95 As the frequency and intensity of floods have increased, the area liable to floods has also enlarged
from 40 million hectares to 59 million hectares as per remote sensing estimation at present.
96 Erach Barucha, Supra note 55, p.151.
97 Dr.D.N.Tewari, Supra note 91, p.l36.
98 “Floods in India11, http:// www.nhc.noaa.gov/about floods, html.
91
besides disruption of transport and communication lines, and other public utilities.
They occur either in the form of river floods", flash floods100 or coastalfloods.101
Primarily, they result from external climatological forces such as: incessant,
torrential rains of monsoons and cyclonic storms, more than the landscape can dispose
off; rapid snow-melts ; ruptures or bursts of moraine dammed lakes102 or ice jammed
rivers ; earthquakes103 and related landslides, mudslides or rock-falls;104 dam failures
or embankment breaches;105 and storm surges or tsunamis.106
And they are also caused by man’s flood-intensifying actions like:
deforestation107 and the resulting siltage;108 urbanization;109 increases in population,
combined with poor resource management; forest fires and surface mining.
99 A river flood is a high flow of water which overtops either the natural, or the artificial banks of a
river. For example, the river Ganga in West Bengal’s Malda and Murshidabad districts, has
permanently swallowed swathes of lands since late 1990s; the river Sutlej which bursts its bank almost
yearly affects many parts of Himachal Pradesh; and the river Hoogly has gulped one inhabited island
in the Sunderbans, displacing more than 7000 people while making other islands vulnerable too.
100 A flash flood is a sudden rush or accelerated run off of water, usually from a enclosed water body.
101 Coastal flood is the inundation of coastal and deltaic regions due to high tides, storm surges, heavy
rains or seismic waves.
102 Moraine is an area where the debris carried down by a glacier is deposited and that which gradually
forms a lake by obstructing the glacial melt run-off After reaching a certain level, the water either
spills over or breaks the moraine barrier due to surging glaciers or avalanches, resulting in a
catastrophic flood.
103 Sometimes, earth movements induced by quakes cause sudden over-topping of water from
structurally strong dams, resulting in destructive flash floods.
104 Landslides, mudslides or rockfalls into a lake, river or a dam, kick off devastating flash floods
giving no time for people to move to safer heights.
r°5 Dams and embankments, which are supposed to protect the populations from floods, are those that
have aggravated the damage potential of the floods, by sometimes releasing the flood waters onto the
plains due to their own failings. For example, the river kosi embankment breach (1984) killed over 200
people by sweeping away eleven villages completely and affecting 196 villages, when the gap in the
embankment widened to three kilometers. There are more such incidents, where these flood prevention
structures have given away, costing lives and properties.
106 Dr.D.N.Tewari, Supra note 91, p. 131.
107 Ideally, forests exert a ‘sponge effect’ soaking up the abundant rainfall and storing it before
releasing in small amounts over a period of time. However, when these are cleared, the rivers turn
muddy and swollen during the wet monsoons and rampage down to the low-lying areas causing floods.
Thus deforestation increases the intensity and fury of the floods.
10! During heavy rainfalls, vast amounts of sediment is brought down from denuded slopes causing
extensive silting in river beds, water channels and other water bodies, greatly reducing their water
holding capacity. Thence, even small increases of water into silted rivers or reservoirs, result in
devastating floods.
109 Urbanization increases the magnitude and frequency of floods with highly impermeable surfaces,
such as roofs, roads, etc.; building of embankments and bridge supports reducing a river’s carrying
capacity; unplanned development by destroying natural lakes; and insufficient drainage systems with
improper maintenance. For example, cities such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmadabad and the
92
Thus, floods are caused by both, natural and anthropogenic factors, either
individually or as a combined result. But more certainly, most of the rapidly growing
flood disasters are caused by humans making themselves and their land, more
vulnerable to floods.
3.2.6 Mass Movement Disasters
There are certain disasters, like mass movement catastrophes, which are
limited to their own peculiar geographical setting and thus are less know about
outside. Landslides, Mud slides, Rock falls and Avalanches are such mass movement
disasters that are common only in certain parts of geographical areas, say hilly or
mountainous region.110
Land Slides are down slope movements of rock and soil debris that become
separated from the underlying, stable part of the slope by a shear zone or slip surface.
They vary in types of movement (falls, slides, topples, lateral spreads, flows) which
depend largely on the nature of the geological environment, including material
strength, slope configuration and pore water pressure.
Mud Slides are large amounts of mud sliding down a hill or a mountain,
usually causing huge damage and destruction.
Rock Falls are movements of debris (mainly rock) largely through the air.
These are the simplest type of movement and occur on steep faces where bedrock
weaknesses, such as joints, bedding and exfoliation surfaces, are present. They more
like, are reeling till date, under the threat of floods every year due to the above mentioned unmindful
attitude.
110 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p. 90.
93
likely fall off cliff faces, rather than slip along a joint or bedding plane, although both
types of movements occur.111
Avalanches are large masses of snow and ice, sliding rapidly down the
mountains. As with slope failures in rock and soil, snow avalanches also result from
an unequal contest between stress and strength on an incline. They occur where a
slope is sufficiently steep to allow the snow to slide. Their most important triggers
tend to be heavy snowfall, blizzard, rain, thaw or some artificial increase in dynamic
loading, such as skiers traversing the surface.
WO
Across the world, almost all regions with a mountainous topography are
affected by all or any of these mass movement hazards. In the Indian subcontinent,
these hazards are not unfamiliar events. In the mountainous areas of the Himalayas,
much is know about these hazards, especially landslides113 and avalanches.
Avalanches, also known as ‘ White tsunamis ', affect the snow hit regions every year
during winters, inspite of red alerts in place. For instance, in 2005, 161 fives were
lost and 128 houses destroyed when a white tsunami swept away a sleepy village,
Waltengo Nar in Anantnag;114 and in 2008, it claimed over 70 fives in Pulwama and
Anantnag districts.115 Mass movement hazards (except avanlanches) are recurring
phenomena in the areas surrounding the Western Ghats also. For instance, the Pune-
111 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, pp. 185-187.
112 Ibid., p. 194.
113 Landslides are common events in the Himalayan region due to its fragile topographical features
combined with intensive construction activity, deforestation and destabilizing forces of nature. For
example, in 2006, blasting and slope modifications for dam construction on river Teesta in Kalimpong,
West Bengal, led to a landslide, washing away about fifty meters of highway (NH31A) affecting life
and livelihood of the local community. Like this one, there are many incidents where unmindful
development has led to serious mass-movement disasters in the region.
114 Riyaz Wani, “Remember WaltengoT, The Indian Express, October 23, 2005, p.5.
115 “Soldiers, Porters Succumb to Avalanches", Hitavada, February 8, 2008, p. 8.
94
Mumbai expressway and the Konkan railways line, in the Western Ghats, are greatly
prone to land and mud slides, and rockfalls, affecting the safety of the people.116
All mass movement hazards occur when an incline or a slope of a mountain,
is too steep to resist gravity as a result of sudden or gradual changes, either in its
composition, structure, hydrology or vegetation.
The changes include a variety of
physical or human actions, that combine either to increase the driving force or to
reduce the shear resistance on a slope, like: weathering118 due to torrential monsoonal
or cyclonic rains and heavy snowfalls; vibrations occurring naturally from seismic
activities or local shocks from the operations of heavy construction machinery;
denuding mountain slopes of their vegetation, either naturally from wildfires or
through human activities such as logging, over-grazing, mining or construction;
placing any additional weight on the slope through building houses, hotels, ski slopes
or ski villages, or dumping wastes, etc.119 And these changes are complemented by
high population densities often at the base of slopes, usually with tourism based
economy.
More often, mass movement hazards pass unnoticed, because they are
generally associated with other larger-scale events like cyclones, floods and
earthquakes. However, these are non-negligible hazards of great importance, which
cause huge losses in a matter of moments.120
116 Gitesh Shelke, “Anti-Landslide Measuresfor E-Way”, DNA, September 17, 2009, p. 5.
117
Erach Barucha, Supra note 55, p.156.
116 Weathering is the natural process which includes the physical and chemical breakdown of slope
materials through water penetrating several meters below the ground surface and turning the soils and
rocks porus, and thus making them prone to failures.
119 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p. 191.
120 June Taboroff, “Cultural Heritage and Natural Disasters: Incentives for Risk Management and
Mitigation”, Alcira Kreimer and Margaret Arnold, (ed) in, “Managing Disaster Risk in Emerging
Economies", Washington, D.C., The World Bank, 2000, p.73.
95
3.2.7
Other Natural Disasters
Almost every year, the Indian subcontinent features a multitude of natural
hazards that turn into devastating disasters. In the list of natural disasters, along with
the above discussed, are a few others that don’t make it to ‘breaking news’, like,
hailstorms, heatwaves, cold spells, fog, lightnings, and forestfires.
Hailstorms are storms, during which small balls of ice or pellets of frozen rain
called ‘hail’, fall like rain from the sky very heavily. They normally occur before the
setting-in of monsoons, viz. April-May, or during their retreat viz. OctoberNovember.121 They usually cause huge damage to standing crops and affect other
cultivations, there by hitting the area’s economy very badly;122
Heat waves are periods of time, during which the weather is very much hotter
than usual. There is a high rise in temperature which affects man’s health and his
activities, sometimes resulting in casualties too.
Normally, heat waves are seen
during peak summers.124
Cold spells are periods when the weather becomes too cold than usual and the
temperature dips down drastically.125 Normally experienced during extreme winters;
cold spells claim lives sometimes.
1
Fog is a thick cloud of water droplets suspended in the air at or near earth’s
surface. It is a thick mist which makes the possibility of vision difficult. Usually
experienced during monsoons and winters, in colder parts of the country, fog causes
121 Sunita Akoijam, “Natural Calamity? Hail Ravages Manipur Paddy", Down to Earth, November 30,
2006, p. 18.
122 For instance, in October 2006, hailstorms, in most forming areas of Manipur, destroyed about 75
percent of standing crops, leading to severe shortage of rice, the main food-grain of the state.
123 The average human body is most efficient at a core temperature of 37° c, and if the heat balance is
modified beyond this critical zone, it results in severe physiological stress and death.
124 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p. 237.
125 In 2006 January, North India experienced the coldest winter in 70 years with temperatures in the
capital on the brink of freezing point and Dal Lake frozen over for the first time in 20 years.
126 Sanghamitra Chakraborthy, “It’s too hot in the Igloo", outlook, January 23, 2006, p. 61.
96
great problems in the field of transport due to very poor visibility: accidents of
vehicles resulting in deaths and injuries, and delay or cancellation of transportation
modes affecting the economy of the country;
Lightnings are bright flashes of light in the sky, which are normally seen
during thunderstorms. They are produced by electric discharge between clouds or
between clouds and the ground. Even though they happen very quickly and last for
only a few seconds, they cause much loss to life and property; and
Forest fires or Wild land fires are devastating fires which destroy hectares of
forest cover and threaten the lives of scores of animals and birds.127 They also
threaten many rare species of flora and fauna. They usually occur during dry spells of
summer, either due to the act of nature (lighting), or act of man (reckless burning as
an agricultural practice, accidents, poor forest management techniques or arson).128
All these hazards, for academic purpose, are classified as ‘minor natural
hazards', but the disasters they wreak are not so perceived. And moreover, from a
disaster victim’s vision, the size of a hazard holds no prominence.
Hence, all natural disasters, whether major or minor, are a universal reality.
They afflict nations rich and poor alike. They leave the whole world shaken and
disturbed, with not just the stark images of death and devastation, but with the chilling
realization that in the near future, they could be somewhere more closer.
The Indian subcontinent, which lies in a danger zone, is known to be a
disaster-prone area since ages. It faces nature’s wrath in the form of cyclones, floods,
earthquakes, cold spells, heat waves, etc. almost regularly.129 Consequently, the
I2' “Sunder bans on Fire”, Down to Earth, April 30,2007, p. 13.
12f P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p.91.
129 Aroon Purie, ‘From the editor-in-chief, India Today, October 24, 2005, p.3.
97
nature’s fury ends up killing thousands of lives, and damaging and destroying crores
of property, annually.130
Thus, natural disasters are found to be endemic to this part of the world, where
each hazard transforms into an awful tragedy, that leaves behind tales of horror and
devastation, for people to live with.131
3.3 Man-Made Disasters
Generally it is believed that, for many centuries mankind has been suffering
from natural disasters, and only with the development of industry and other latest
innovations in the last two centuries, techno-genic catastrophes have been added to
the list of disasters.132 But the above description of technological hazards reinforces
the old, misguided view that they are of recent origin, whereas, technological systems,
such as river dams, bridges and other public structures, have been built- and have
failed-since antiquity. Their failures are not restricted to the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. However, important changes have taken place through time in the nature
and scale of risk, and the pace of change associated with the Industrial Revolution has
only led to a ‘marked increase’ in risk during these later centuries.133
“Technological hazards” have been found to be quite difficult to provide a
definition for, that which suits all tastes. But they are generally seen as major “ManMade” accidents, i.e. the initiating event in a disaster arising from a human, rather
than a geophysical, agency.134
Also known as '‘''anthropogenic''' or “human-induced” disasters, they occur
primarily, either due to ‘technology failures’ such as defective design or process;
‘human error’ such as inadequate planning, negligent management or improper
130 Raghavendra R, “Nature’s wrath”, The New Indian Express, October 12, 2005, p.8.
131 Aroon Purie, ‘From the editor-in -chief, India Today, January 2, 2006, p.l.
132 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p.282.
133 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, pp.317-318.
134 Ibid., p.314.
98
operation of any system; or ‘sabotage or terrorism’ due to social unrest, and ethnic
intolerance
of man.135Thus today, man-made disasters include all accidents and
events of higher scale, that present life-threatening risks to the community, which
result from an element of human act or omission, for example, breakdown in
industrial plants, dam failures, transport accidents, fire mishaps, communal riots,
epidemics, etc.
3.3.1 Industrial Disasters
Though industrialization is considered the hallmark of economic progress all
over the world, the industrial processes and activities pose serious hazard to both man
and environment by way of pollution, and sometimes in a big way for the sudden
havoc they create by accidents.136
Every year, dozens of accidents are reported involving the activities of
industries. Industrial disasters involve the release of life-threatening materials from
any toxic or dangerous substance, object or product through spillages, leaks, fires or
explosions.137 The materials are mostly chemicals which are hazardous because they
are inflammable, corrosive or toxic and the most hazardous ones are high-level
radioactive elements, explosives, oils and a few gases and liquids that are poisonous
when inhaled or ingested.138
So, industrial disasters take place when hazardous materials, stored or
transported in a less than secure manner, catch fire, explode or are released as a toxic
cloud, thereby causing serious threat to life and safety of the workers and the public at
135 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p.91.
136 N.S.Chandrasekharan, “Industrial Labour and Protection ofEnvironment: A Fresh Look”, vol. 18,
C.U.L.R., 1994, p.171.
137 Monica Trujillo, Amado Ordonez, Rafael Hernandez, Supra note 2, p. 20.
138 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p.316.
99
large.139 Most of these events usually occur at refineries, manufacturing plants, mines
or during transportation of hazardous materials.
Since the last few decades, industrial accidents have been on the rise due to
the increasing use of toxic chemicals, radionuclides, harmful or unproven technology,
and extreme operating conditions in the industries.140 This is particularly true in the
case of developing countries, where the rising technologies of the rich countries are
normally seen as helping to prevent disasters through better technical processes and
safer construction techniques. However, the irony is that, the more a society becomes
dependent on advanced technology, the greater is the potential for disaster, if the
technology fails.141
3.3.1.1 Chemical and other Industrial Accidents
Man-made fabrics, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and toileteries, fertilizers and
pesticides, paints, fireworks, building materials, etc. are just some of the products of
the chemical industry that are integral to almost every aspect of modem living. These
and many more have assured the society that the benefits of the chemical revolution
are demonstrably great, with added comfort in the home and in general, better health
and well being.
But with these are attached risks too: either because of their toxicity to living
organisms, in particular to man, or because of their high inflammability or potential to
explode. Of some 60,000 chemicals in common use, several hundreds have been
described as toxic,142 hazardous,143 carcinogenic,144 mutagenic,145 and teratogenic,146
139 N.S.Chandrasekharan, Supra note 136, p. 171.
140 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p.84.
141 Ibid., p.110.
142 Toxic chemicals are generally defined as substances fatal to over 50 percent of test animals at stated
concentrations, while many are known to be neurotoxins, which attack nerve cells.
143 Hazardous chemicals are literally dangerous chemicals which cause harm because they are:
flammable or explosive; irritating or damaging to the skin or lungs; or allergic to the immune systems.
100
in nature. However, inspite of the drawbacks, both natural and man-made chemicals
have inevitably found their way into man’s life.147
Thus, the chemical industry which has been growing steadily from the start of
the last century and catering to the needs of the people, has also highlighted the
problems of major industrial hazards, periodically. So, along with the goodness of
chemicals, the bitter fruits of chemical accidents have also become an inevitable part
of mankind.
A ‘Chemical accident’ is a sudden harmful event that sometimes takes place
when chemicals are used in or made by a chemical process. In more technical terms,
“it involves a fortuitous, sudden or unintended occurrence while handling any
hazardous chemical/substance, resulting in continuous, intermittent or repeated
exposure to death or injury to any person or damage to any property ,but does not
include an accident by reason only of war or radio-activity.”148
Till date, several chemical accidents have occurred world-wide. These have
been mainly caused by fires, explosions, leakages, or during transit, which have killed
and injured thousands of people and animals, and led to hundreds of evacuations.149
For example, Texas City disaster, U.S.A. (1947),150 Flixborough disaster, U.K.
(1974),151 Seveso disaster, Italy (1976),152 Bhopal gas disaster, India (1984), Basel
144 Carcinogenic chemicals are those that cause or promote the growth of a malignant (cancerous)
tumors in which certain cells multiply uncontrollably.
145 Mutagenic chemicals cause mutations i.e. changes in the DNA molecules of the genes that get
transmitted from parent to offspring.
146 Teratogenic chemicals cause birth defects during the growth and development of the human embryo
during pregnancy.
147 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 15, p. 13.
148 Chemical accident’, as defined under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and the Public
Liability Insurance Act, 1991.
149 P.GSinha, Supra note 35, p. 92.
150 Texas city disaster occurred due to fire and explosions of cargo aboard a docked ship, containing
3,200 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. (578 people killed and more than 3,500 injured).
is] Fijxborougjj disaster took place due to an explosion at a chemical plant. (28 people killed and 36
seriously injured).
101
disaster, Switzerland (1986),153 Toulouse disaster, France (2001),154 Alumina plant
disaster, Hungary (2010),155 etc. are a few prominent ones to mention.
Amongst these, the Bhopal gas tragedy, known as the ‘Hiroshima of the
chemical industry’, is considered to be one of the world’s worst industrial disasters,
caused by Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya
Pradesh.156 The incident took place in December, 1984, during the midnight of 2nd
and the early hours of 3rd, when forty tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) and other
lethal gases including hydrogen cyanide leaked from UCC’s pesticide factory,
forming dense cloud of gas that drifted over an area of seven kilometers in radius,
killing over 15,000 people and causing multisystemic injuries to over 5,00,000
population.157 To this day, one can still find the innocent victims of the disaster
suffering silently and fighting the creeping death.158 Furthermore, the site which has
not yet been cleaned properly continues to pollute the local area, with the toxic waste
stored in the ill-fated UCC factory premises.159
In India, there have occurred several industrial accidents, which have been
fortunately less severe compared to the Bhopal gas disaster. The following are a few
to name : oleum gas leakage in Shriram industries (1986), chemical leakage into a
sewerage in Thane (1993), explosion and fire in scooter seat manufacturing unit in
Faridabad (1997), gas leak at copper smelting plant in Tuticom (1997), gelatin sticks
152 Seveso disaster occurred when toxic chemicals were accidentally released in the atmosphere, killing
3,000 pets and leading to slaughtering of 70,000 animals.
153 Basel disaster also known as Sandoz disaster took place due to the release of tons of agro-chemicals
into the river Rhine, affecting thousands of people.
154 Toulouse disaster took place due to an explosion in a fertilizer factory. (29 people killed and 2,500
injured).
153 Alumina plant accident occurred when a highly toxic chemical reservoir at a factory premises burst
and flooded several settlements resulting in deaths and bum injuries.
156 “Amnesty Campaign”, Down to Earth, December 31,2004, p. 58.
157 Sathinath Sarangi, “Bhopal Gas Tragedy”, “India Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative",
compiled by S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, P.334.
158 Priya.M.Menon, “Bhopal: The Continuing Holocaust, The New Indian Express, August 26, 2005,
P-3.
159 Vibha Varshney, “Flawed Plans”, Down to earth, December 15, 2004, p. 7.
102
accident in a warehouse in Satara (1997), explosions in firecracker units in
Hyderabad, Madhurai and Thrissur (1997), fire at chemical industrial estate near
Howrah (1998), fire in a match factory in kovilpatti, Tamilnadu (2002), explosion in
the SHAR complex in Sriharikota (2004), a toxic spill in Agartala (2007), etc.160 In all
these accidents, several people, including women and children, lost their lives, and
many others suffered serious injuries.
So one of the main reasons for industrial accidents to occur, mainly like the
Bhopal gas disaster, is the common practice of multinational firms to locate plants
within developing countries, such as India, where labour costs and industrial safety
standards are lower than those in more industrialized economies, and profits greater
than with domestic operations. Although many multinational firms contend that the
plants they build abroad are identical to those built in their home countries, the
dangers at these plants are extremely high because the management systems and
operations existing ‘on the ground’ are often far more lax and imprudent.161
And other factors that contribute to the growth of industrial hazards are:
introduction of new chemicals; wrong handling of toxic substances in plants or
storage facilities; accidents during transportation of hazardous materials; misuse of
chemicals or chemical processes; improper management of toxic wastes;
technological system failures; failures of plant safety design; arson or sabotage; and
sometimes, natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, etc.
3.3.1.2
Nuclear Accidents
160 “Industrial Disasters”, http://www.nidm.gov.in/idmc.html.
161 Aran Kumar, “Environmental Problems, Protection and ControV', vol.2, New Delhi: Anmol
Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1999, p. 82.
162 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p.38.
103
Nuclear energy is the result of nuclear fission of an atom.163 It is found to be
very beneficial and is used for a variety of purposes, like, x-rays to examine bones for
fractures, radiation to treat cancer, radioactive isotopes to diagnose diseases, etc.
Moreover, it is being widely used as a reliable source of power.
The world’s first power-generating nuclear reactor was constructed in the
United States in 1951. And in December 1953, before the Soviet Union built its first
reactor in 1954, President Dwight D Eisenhower in his ‘Atoms for Peace’ speech
made the following prediction:
“Nuclear reactors will produce electricity so cheaply that it will not be
necessary to meter it. The users will pay a fee and use as much electricity as they
want. Atoms will provide a safe, clean and dependable source of electricity”.164
Although the above statement and the rich benefits sound highly optimistic,
the devastation and harm caused by the nuclear bomb in the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki (Japan) in 1945 and several other serious accidents thereafter have caused
worldwide concern about the safety of nuclear energy.
Over the world, as on January 2011, 442 nuclear reactors have been found
operating and 65 of them under construction, with India having 20 nuclear reactors in
operation and five in the pipeline. 165In the Indian subcontinent, nuclear installations,
right from mining of radioactive minerals, fuel fabrications, heavy water plants,
research reactors, power reactors to reprocessing units, are found scattered in several
parts of the country.
In almost all the nuclear installations, ‘unusual events’ - often referred to as
‘routine accidents’, frequently occur during their operations due to spontaneous
16" Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom. The first controlled fission of an atom was
carried out in Germany in 1938.
164 Erach Bharucha, Supra note 55, p.137.
16: ‘'''World Nuclear Installations", http://www.world-nuclear.org/info.html.
104
failures of equipment, and deviations from surveillance and maintenance activities.166
But one event which changed people’s attitude towards nuclear plants was the
Chernobyl disaster that occurred in 1986. The immediate cause was that the workers
at the nuclear plant were conducting an experiment on one of the reactors without
shutting it down and overriding the built-in safety devices, which unfortunately failed,
creating an explosion that blew away the top the reactor vessel and ejected lumps of
radioactive material from the plant, with immediate fatalaties and devastating long­
term consequences. This resulted in one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents, with
major transcontinental pollution, stemming largely from human error, that took
several days to bring the runaway reaction under control.167
India too, has experienced a few alarming incidents like, a fire in Narora
(Uttar Pradesh) power plant in 1993 which led to evacuation of its employees, their
families and the people in its neighbourhood;
a toxic spill in Uranium Corporation
of India Limited, Jadugada (Jharkhand) in 2006, when a pipeline carrying radioactive
waste burst, discharging highly toxic waste in a creek, killing scores of riparian life
and affecting the local communities by polluting the surrounding environment;169
‘dome fall’ in Kaiga power reactor (Karnataka) due to fault in design; leakage of
radioactivity from nuclear installations in Trombay and Tarapur (Maharashtra) due to
welding deficiencies in pipelines and storage tanks;170 etc.
Although the nuclear industries are highly regulated and are rarely sited in
close proximity to human settlements, they have still created new risks to man and his
environment from accidental radioactive fallouts from nuclear plants, thoughtless
P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p.93.
16' Keith smith, Supra note 20, p. 329.
168 Meenakshi Nath, “Industrial Disasters: Working Towards Oblivion", S.Parasuraman and
P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in, “India Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative", New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2000, p. 321.
169 “Toxic Creek", Down to Earth, February 28, 2007, p. 16.
170 Meenakshi Nath, Supra note 168, p.324.
105
nuclear testings, improper storage of nuclear materials, and unsafe disposal and
transportation of nuclear wastes. Particularly the latter, which contain millions of
tonnes of high grade radioactive matter and which remain hazardous for thousands of
years, are considered to be the most worrying environmental problems of the present
day.
171
3.3.1.3
Extraction Industry Accidents
The extraction industry is one more of the kind which has a long history of
disaster events. The onset of industrial revolution with insatiable demands for raw
materials and other forms of energy, for an ever increasing standards of living,
culminated in extensive extraction of minerals, oil, gas and hydro-carbon deposits,
resulting in considerable mining accidents.
Primarily mining, which is considered second only to agriculture as the
world’s oldest172 and most important industry, began in India in 1774. Since then,
mining has become a vital sector of the country’s economic and industrial
development with great benefits. But, it has also brought a manifold of hardships
along with.173
Firstly, ‘fires and explosions’ are a great challenge to the mining industry,
particularly coal. Tracing the history of coal mining in India, it has been observed that
fires and explosions in underground coal mines have routinely killed a number of
miners^ especially, old coal mines that are abandoned without filling, leaving the
tunnels to act like oxygen flues for fires.174 For example, a fire at New Kenda Colliery
of Eastern Coal Field Limited (ECL) cost the lives of fifty-five miners in January
171 Prof. Chandra Pal, “Environmental Pollution and Development: Environmental Law, Policy and
Role ofJudiciary’', New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1999, p.17.
172 The dependence of primitive societies upon minerals and mined products is illustrated very well by
the nomenclature of the epochs such as, Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, a sequence which also
shows the increasing complexity of society’s relationship with mineral exploration and mining.
173 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 15 pp. 84-85.
174 Ibid., p.109.
106
1994; an explosion in an abandoned underground coalmine near Asansol175 in 2007,
tore through several homes and caused cracks along a stretch of the national highway
2 (that connects Kolkata to Delhi) disrupting road and railway traffic in the area;176
etc. are a few incidents to mention.
Secondly, ‘subsidence’ is another problem faced by the mining industry,
which threatens habitats of the underground mining fields. Subsidence is known as
the vertical component of the ground movement produced as a result of mining and
allied activities. In simple words, it is the ‘sinking in’ or the ‘caving in’ of the land
surface. It has serious effects both on surface and underground structures, services and
communication systems. Even to this day, many towns and villages with roads,
bridges, railway lines, etc. are in constant danger to subsidence because they are
standing over small pillars in unfilled mine fields. And in certain areas, inspite of
fillings, surface buildings are damaged due to inadequate and hasty stowing.177 For
example, a roof collapse at Kottadih mine of the Eastern Coal Fields Limited in 1997
killed three and injured six;178 a subsidence in Goa’s Tollem iron ore mine in 2006
killed six mine labourers;179 and ten people including eight children were killed and
fifteen injured, when a patch of land near Kusunda colliery collapsed in Jharkhand in
2007;180 such several incidents are regular happenings in the mining areas.
Thirdly, ‘water inundation’ in underground mines due to heavy rains, floods /
flash floods or water seepage, is one more recurring danger in the mining industry.181
175 The Asansol-Raniganj-Dhanbad-Jharia belt is an area of hellfire: vast tracts of land have rendered
sterile, water quality and water levels have changed, and the emissions of poisonous gases have turned
the atmosphere into a death trap. A majority of the residents near the mining areas and miners working
underground are suffering from various diseases.
176 Maureen Nandini Mitra, “Fault Lines: Abandoned Mines a threat’, Down to earth, February 28,
2007, p.14.
177 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 15, pp.89-91.
178 Meenakshi Nath, Supra note 168, p.326.
179 Vasudha Sawaiker, “Goa Mine Collapse”, Down to Earth, January 15,2007, p.16.
180 “Jharkhand Mining Accident', Down to Earth, April 15,2007, p.18.
181 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 15, p.110.
107
For instance, the Bharath Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) mine inundation at Geslitand
in 1995, killed sixty four workers due to an embankment breach.182
And lastly sometimes, mining operations and associated activities, like
blasting, drilling, crushing and transportation, lead to serious accidents. But, fires and
explosions, subsidence, and water inundations are considered to be the prime causes
of casualties in mines.183
Finally, the demands for other forms of energy like oil and gas, and their
extraction have also resulted in considerable industrial disasters.184 They being
sensitive by their very nature have been the cause of many accidents, for they flare up
in huge fires and explosions that are very difficult to contain due to the slightest
electric or frictional sparks, spontaneous ignition of machineries or other equipments,
design and management errors, etc.185
All facilities related to their extractions, like drilling platforms, rigs, wells,
storage chambers, transportation tanks, refineries, etc. are found to be dangerous to
human beings and the environment. For example, in 1988, the Piper Alpha platform
disaster in the North Sea claimed 167 lives.186 In India too, there have been serious
accidents like: a fire in the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) rig, off
Mumbai’s Coast in 2005, claimed twelve lives with fourteen missing,187 and with a
similar incident in 1999 also; a blast at the Hindustan Petroleum Refinery at
Vishakhapatnam in 1997 killed thirty seven people ; a flash fire at the hydro cracker
unit of Indian Oil Corporation’s Panipat Refinery in 1999, killed five;188 an explosion
182 Meenakshi Nath, Supra note 168, p.322.
183 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 15, p. 111.
184 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p.319.
185 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 15, p.110.
186 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p.319.
187 Dilip Bobb, Malini Bhupta and Shankkar Aiyar, “Mumbai's Collapse”, India Today, August 8,2005,
p. 24.
188 “Industrial Disasters”, Supra note 160.
108
at Madras Oil Refineries in 1997 killed two and seriously injured thirty;189 and many
more.
Therefore the extraction industry, one of the most dangerous ventures, results
in horrifying disasters, mainly due to the sensitive nature of the elements extracted.
Thus conclusively, all industrial disasters, be them chemical, nuclear or
extraction, have increased shockingly, especially in the developing countries due to
greed for hasty industrialization, adoption of technological advances which are less
tolerant of human errors, increase in the numbers, size and age of installations in use,
greater number of substances involved in production, reprocessing and storage, and
most importantly, construction of more factories and industries in flood-prone areas,
in earthquake zones, and on the borders of cities which have later expanded to enclose
them.190
3.3.2
Mega Structural Disasters
The complex risks of today produce disproportionately higher losses than did
their simple counterparts of several decades ago. This is true of most modem types of
gigantic buildings and structures, such as dams, bridges and other multi-storeyed
blocks. The availability of modem design and construction methods has led to a
general reduction of safety margins. Thereby, this has increased the chances of
disasters by way of structural collapses.191 While the latter are often caused by
engineering failures, they can also be the result of acts of nature, sometimes.
And India, an emerging super power, which basks in the proud achievement of
being one of the leading builders of such mega structures, undoubtedly simmers in the
fear of their failures also.
189 Meenakshi Nath, Supra note 168, p. 328.
190 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p. 93.
191 Ibid., p. 134.
109
3.3.2.1
Dam Disasters
Throughout history, rivers and dams have been most important in man’s
development. Dams, the ‘monolithic developmental structures’ which have brought
great benefits, such as water supply and hydro-power, have also carried the risk of
floods, land sterility and tremors. Therefore, there is a people’s truism built around
big dams - they are one of the stupendous developmental constructs of mankind,
which bring down upon it, all of God’s wrath.192
Decades ago, dams were embraced by India as a way of lifting itself out of
poverty. Their execution became an important element of growth and development
strategy intended to meet needs of irrigation, hydroelectric power and flood control.193
Today, India ranks among the most important dam building nations with a rare
distinction of having the largest number of valley projects in the world.194 These dams
have become a symbol of national development as these are by and large located in
backward and tribal areas and many people living in these areas look at them with
high hopes. These dams have the potential of solving most of the country’s economic
problems, like eradication of floods, famines, food shortages, unemployment, urban
water shortages and power deficiency.195
But the introduced structures, along with the benefits, have serious
implications on the ecology of the river basin,196 and social and economic setting of
the communities.
192 Himanshu Thakkar, “Large Dams: Disasters of Gigantism”, S. Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan,
(ed) in,“India Disasters Report -Towards a Policy Initiative”, New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2000, p. 68.
193 Prof. Chandra Pal, Supra note 171, p. 198.
194 India being one of the world’s most prolific dam-builders, has already constructed around 4,300
large dams by July 2010, and many more are in the pipeline.
195 Prof. Chandra Pal, Supra note 171, p. 199.
196 For instance, soil erosion, loss of forests, and flora and fauna, changes in fisheries, specially
spawning grounds, loss of non-forest land, land infertility due to water logging and salinity around
reservoir, reduced water flow and sedimentation in rivers, salt water ingress at river mouth, etc.
110
Primarily, these mega structures which are supposed to protect the populations
from floods are those that have actually aggravated the damage potential of the floods.
Because these projects which are promoted as multi-purpose dams, simultaneously
serving the dual purposes of electricity generation and flood control, have conflicting
demands: while the former requires that as much water be stored in the reservoir as
possible, the latter demands that excess water be constantly released. Finally in the
event of a choice, the cause of power generation gets precedence over flood control as
always.197 Thus, the dams being already full to the brink, with not much water holding
capacity,
lead
to
severe
floods,
either
through
over-spillings,
heavy
discharges/releases, or dam bursts, during abundant precipitation or any natural
calamity.198
Secondly, these monumental structures are known to cause earthquake tremors
themselves due to impounding of large volumes of water. For instance, a major
earthquake that savaged Central India in 1967, is strongly believed to have been
triggered by Koyna dam in Maharashtra and not due to the seismicity of the
region.1 "And there are reports that it is still producing tremors due to reservoirinduced seismicity. This is particularly true with regard to hydel projects in the
heavily faulted regions, like the Tehri dam and other projects between Dehradun and
Kathmandu; the Teesta Low dam III in north Sikkim; the massive Bargi dam on the
Narmada valley, the second most active rift after the Himalayan belt;200 the Alamatti
197 Kanjiv Lochan and Sanjay Awasthi, “Lessons from Eastern Uttar Pradesh”, S.Parasuraman and
P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in, “India Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative”, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2000, p. 162.
198 Prof.Chandra Pal, Supra note 171, p. 201.
199 Ravi Chopra, Supra note 28, pp. 203-204.
200 The earthquake of May 1997 that hit Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh killed and injured hundreds of
people is believed to have been caused by the Bargi dam, situated just kilometers away from the
epicenter.
Ill
dam on the river Krishna in north Karnataka;
etc. which aggravate the already
existing earthquake hazard.
Dam disasters cause gruesome tragedies with serious loss of life and property,
affecting over hundreds and even thousands of square kilometers with water waves of
tremendous potential.202 The country has gone through several instances of dam
failures in the past, like: the Tigra dam in Madhya Pradesh (1917) due to sliding; the
Kaddam dam in Andhra Pradesh (1958) due to a structural breach; the Kaila dam in
Gujarat (1959) due to weak foundation bed; the Macchu dam II in Gujarat (1979) due
to abnormal floods; the Nanaksagar dam in Punjab (1967) due to heavy monsoon; the
twin disaster near Pune (1961) of Panshet dam and Khadakwasala dam, due to the
former’s construction failure and the latter being battered by the former’s flood
waters;203 etc. are a few to note.
And the recent ones being: the breakdown of Hradagada dam in Orissa (1999)
due to cyclonic storm flooding;204 structural collapse of Jamuna dam in Madhya
Pradesh (2002) following heavy rains;205 failures of Palemvagu dam (2008) and
Gundlavagu dam (2006) in Andhra Pradesh due to structural breach and heavy floods,
respectively;206 and many more.
Dam failures usually occur due to any of the following reasons: foundation
inferiority, inadequate spillway capacity, incorrect spillway gate operation, seepage
through the dam, high pore pressure, heavy sedimentation, embankment slips, ageing
of the structure, poor maintenance without adequate repairs, defective material or
201 Harsh.K.Gupta, “The Present Status of Reservoir-Induced Seismicity Investigations with Special
Emphasis on Koyna Earthquakes”, http://www.environmentarticles.com
202 Prof.Chandra Pal, Supra note 171, p. 200.
203 “Dam Failure-India”, http://www.cgwb.gov.in/watershed.jpg.
204 C.N.Ray and P.R.Rout, Supra note 81, p. 10.
205 Rajesh Sinha, “Monsoon Spells Trouble for Dams”, DNA, June 18,2007, p. 11.
206 “Dam Failure-India”, Supra note 203.
112
poor construction, landslide or rock fall generated waves within the reservoir, or soil
liquefaction due to earthquakes.207
Therefore, dam safety has become important in recent years, more so, with the
steady increase in their size, huge population growth in the valleys below, and the
ageing of the existing structures.208 Even the slightest neglect of safety measures of
these dams are a great threat to civilization, no less than nuclear power. Thus, these
mega-structures are seen as both, vital and disastrous to mankind.209
3.3.2.2
Other structural Disasters
In the modem age, highrise structures, giant bridges and super fly-overs;
products of the untrammelled genius of architects, engineers and builders are a
symbol of concentrated and intense activity. They are growing bigger with time, and
are both, spectacular commercial ventures on the one hand, and a bundle of troubles
on the other, with an enormous increase in the quantum of hazards.210
These mega structures also, along with the benefits and comforts, bring to the
fore, the harsh reality of destruction in case of a failure. Structural failures are caused
due to several reasons, such as design faults, poor construction quality, corrosion
attacks, over-loading beyond the capacity,211 ageing of the structure,212 etc.
India, with a multitude of mega structures, has faced several unpleasant events
in relation to them. For instance, over bridge/flyover collapse near Common Wealth
207 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p. 318.
208 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 54, p. 80.
209
Ibid., p. 92.
210 S.K.Dheri and G.C.Misra, “Fire: Blazing questions”, S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in,
“India Disasters Report -Towards a Policy Initiative’, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp.
308-309.
211 For example, in December 2009, a bridge collapsed in Kota, Rajasthan, due to excess weight of
many people killing 45 and injuring several.
212 For instance, in August 2005, in Mumbai, a 100 year old building collapsed killing 1 lpeople;in
December 2006, a 150 year-old bridge collapsed over a passing train in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district
killing 35 and injuring over 17 people; etc.
113
Games venue in New Delhi (2010); Monorail bridge collapse in Mumbai (2011);
railway bridge failure in Valigonda, near Hyderabad (2005); flyover collapse
(Punjagutta) in Hyderabad (2007); various building collapses in Eastern New Delhi
(2010), Ahmadabad (2011), Thane (2011), Ajmer (2010);213 etc. are just a few to
mention. In all these disasters, scores have lost their lives and property.
3.3.3
Transport Disasters
All modes of transport, be them automobiles, trains, aircrafts or ships, have
appreciably increased to a choking level within the last few decades. Also many
passenger vehicles have got bigger in size and carry more passengers, with the result
that, in the event of an accident, they tend to create more victims. So consequently the
total exposure to transport-related risks has grown considerably.214
3.3.3.1
Road Accidents
Today, road travel has become much more risky. Road accidents kill more
people than any disease in the world, including AIDS and cancer. Over one thousand
young people, most of them between the age of ten and twenty-five, die everyday due
to bike and car crashes. Over the world annually, 1.2 million people succumb in road
accidents, forty percent of whom are under twenty-five, while millions more are
213 “Structural Failure”, http://www.articles.timesofindia.timeofindia.com.
214 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p. 318.
114
seriously injured or disabled for life.215 Hence, road accidents are one of the world’s
greatest cause of premature deaths.
Of the worldwide annual average of7,00,000 road accidents, ten percent occur
in India, on a l.Smillion kilometers of road network. According to a study by the
Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), of around forty percent of the total accidents,
forty-eight percent of deaths occur on national highways, and accidents in the urban
areas account for more than fifty percent of fatalities involving passengers,
pedestrians216 (including homeless, curbside sleepers), bicyclists, etc.217
India, with a large number of vehicles clogging its roads, witnesses several
major accidents oftenly. For instance, the Wazirabad school-bus tragedy in Delhi
(1997) killed 29 children when the bus plunged into river Yamuna while speeding
over a bridge; a bus accident in Jalangi, West Bengal (1998) killed 65 people when
the bus skidded in fog and plunged into river Bhagirati; a bus disaster in Davanagere,
Karnataka (1999) killed 94 passengers when the vehicle lost control due to excessive
speed over bad road and plunged into a lake; a series of Blue Line bus accidents in
Delhi (2007,2008,2010,2011);218 are a few of the serious road disasters.
The main causes for road accidents are: disrespect to road safety rules and
regulations, heavy traffic due to increased number of vehicles,219 poor quality of
roads, overloading of vehicles, and unsafe travelling habits like non-wearing of
helmets, non-strapping of seat-belts and roof traveling.220
215 Kounteya Sinha, “1000 youths die daily in road accidents: WHO”, The Times of India, April 22,
2007, p. 7.
216 For example, in the famous BMW hit and run case, six people were mowed down in January 1999;
in 2002, actor Salman Khan’s jeep ran over pavement dwellers killing one and seriously injuring three.
217 V.J.Thomas, “Road Accidents”, S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in, “India Disasters
Report: Towards a Policy Initiative”, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 341
218 Piyush Tewari, “Creating First Responders to Road Accidents”, http://www.savelifefoimdation.org.
2,9 In India, there were four million vehicles on the road in the early 1990’s and it is estimated that the
figure will be 270 million by the year 2050.
225 Kounteya Sinha, Supra note 215, p. 7.
115
3.3.3.2
Railways Accidents
‘Indian Railway’, the largest rail system in the world under one management,
is plagued by some of the worst train accidents.221 Railway accidents mainly occur
due to derailments and collisions, both of which cause the maximum number of
passenger deaths.
Railway Derailments occur when trains come off the track on which they are
running, causing the coaches to crash into trackside objects, or topple over one
another, or turn topsy-turvy, or plunge into rivers, resulting in loss of life and injuries
to the people. For instance, derailment of Ahmedabad-Howrah Express between
Bilaspur and Champon in September 1997, killed 88 and injured 369 passengers
when the train slipped off the tracks which were opened for maintenance without
adequate protection; derailment of Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani Express in September
2002, killed 100 and hurt 150 when a few bogies plunged into river Dhave in Bihar’s
Aurangabad district; and in the recent incident, Delhi-bound Kalka mail derailed in
Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh, in July 2011, killing atleast 35 and injuring more
than 200 people.222 Like these, there have occurred several derailment disasters,
which have killed and maimed scores.
Railway Collisions take place when moving trains clash, either against each
other or against any other moving or stationery vehicle, resulting in a violent impact
costing lives. They occur as: head-on collisions,223 rear-end collisions,224 collisions
221 Ranjit Mathur, “Railway Accidents", S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in, “India Disasters
Report-Towards a Policy Initiative", New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 346.
222 “Delhi-bound Kalka Mail Mishap Worst this year3', The Hitavada, July 11,2011, p.5.
223 For example, a head-on collision between UP Passenger and stationary empty tank train near
Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh in April 1996 killed 54 and injured 84 people; another such collision in
December 2004, at Jalandhar, Punjab between Jammu Tawi Express and Jallandhar-Pathankot local,
killed 37 and injured more than 50 people.
224 For example, rear-end collision between Purushottam Express and Kalindi Express near Firozabad,
Uttar Pradesh, in August 1995, killed 400 people.
116
'j'je
into derailed stationery coaches,
’}'}&
or into road transport vehicles.
A majority of the
latter mishaps occur at unmanned level crossings.
According to several studies and reports, railway accidents are mainly caused
due to human errors, such as, failure of railway staff, failure of persons other than
railway staff,227 and poor quality or poor maintenance of equipments. However, there
are other causes also, like sabotage, in the shape of bombs in trains or on the tracks by
insurgents or terrorists,228 fire,229 falling of boulders,230 sinkage of tracks due to heavy
rains or floods,
etc.
3.3.3.3 Aviation Accidents
Air travel which is known to be comparatively safer than the other modes of
transportation is not completely hazard free. There have occurred several air accidents
throughout the history of aviation industry.232 Sometimes shockingly, aircraft engines
flame out in mid-air, canopies and doors unsnap, instruments and systems collapse,
and undercarriages fail to retract or descend.233 So, an aviation accident is any
225 These are one of the most commonly occurring collisions. For instance, in November 1998, atleast
108 people were killed when Sealdah Express rammed into three derailed bogies of Frontier Golden
Temple Mail near Ludhiana, Punjab; in December 2000,46 people were killed as die Howrah -Amri tsar
Mail rammed into a derailed goods train near sadhugaih, Punjab.
226 Also one of the most occurring collisions, which kill people other than the train passengers also.
Like, 34 killed when Kasgunj Express rammed into a bus at a rail crossing in June 2002; 30 killed in
February 2004, when Kanchenjunga Express collided into a truck at a level crossing in Dinajpur
district, West Bengal.
227 Persons other than railway staff include trespassers on the track and the drivers of road vehicles
disregarding rules at level crossings. For instance, in August 2001, 15 people including children were
run over by a train while crossing a track in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra.
228 A bomb blast on Brahmaputra Mail in lower Assam in December 1996 killed 33 ; derailment of
Jyaneshwari Express, by naxals in may 2010 killed 148; an explosion on a Guwahati-Puri train by
militants in July 2011 killed several; etc.
229 For instance, fire killed 38 passengers of Amritsar Frontier Mail in May 2003; in April 2011,
passengers of Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani had a narrow escape when its pantry car caught fire; etc.
230 For example, the Matsyagandha Express derailed after hitting boulders over a bridge in Ambawali,
Maharashtra, in June 2004, killing more than 14 people.
231 For instance, as many as 114 passengers were killed when Delta fast train derailed off the tracks
before plunging into a swollen river at Valigonda, Andhra Pradesh in October 2005 due to the washing
away of a bridge after flash floods.
232 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p. 323.
233 V.J.Thomas, “Air Accidents”, S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan (ed) in, “India Disasters
Report-Towards a Policy Initiative ”, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 344.
117
occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects the safety of the
passengers and crew members.
The Indian skies and soil which have a relatively good air safety record, have
still seen a few worst air disasters in the country. The worst air accident occurred in
Haryana (Charki Dadri) in November 1996, killing 349 people, when Saudi Arabian
Airlines and Kazakhastan Airlines collided in mid-air.234
Today, though the aircrafts are well equipped with state-of the art and fly-by­
wire technology, computerized error control and overdrive, multiple instrument
backups and automatic landing systems, an element of ‘human-error’ almost always
crops up in all air accidents. Thus, a ready recipe for aircraft disaster stems from
human error, which leads from high job intensity, in the form of aircrew fatigue and
short rotation, and inexperienced crew.235
But, there are other contributing causes also, like long overhaul time for
aircrafts, their inadequate maintenance,236 ageing aircrafts in the skies, rising
population of birds near airports, shortness of commercial runways,237 paucity of air
•
•
.
space, miscommumcations,
3.3.4
238
...
terror activities,
239
etc.
Fire Disasters
Another human-made disaster that is worthy of mention is the menace of fires.
Of all the disasters that ravage India every year, fires no doubt kill fewer people, but
234 VJ.Thomas, Supra note 233, p.344.
235 Ibid., pp.344-345.
236 For instance, in January 1982, Air Florida Flight which had departed from Washington D.C. in a
heavy storm crashed into the river Potomac killing 78 people due to improper de-icing of the wings.
237 One of the best examples of short runway related mishaps is the Mangalore air crash of may 2010,
which killed nearly 158 people leaving only eight survivors.
238 The Charkhi Dadri aircrash of 1996 was allegedly a combination of pilot foolhardiness, slipshod
navigation, and-in the age of electronic communication-unfamiliar language exchange between the
Kazakh pilots and the traffic air controllers.
239 Till date, die best examples of air terror are the September 2001 air crashes, into the north and south
towers of World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia (U.S.A.).
118
they often cause irreparable damage.240 Industrial growth without adequate
safeguards, people’s romantic vision of big industry with high technology, and a
dream of an urbocentric social and developmental structure, have kept fire hazards in
high gear.241 So the growing fire hazards, both in variety and quantum, are sparked off
by technological advancements: ironically, rising standards of living.242
According to the first annual fire statistics published in 1996, that year, 81,644
fire calls and 12,965 rescue calls were received and responded to by the fire service,
in which 4,045 people died, 7,887 were injured and property worth 909.228 crores
was damaged. And the figures did not include unrecorded calls in rural areas, where
the fire service did not exist.243 Thus, these poor statistics very well speak out today’s
grim situation due to evidently more higher standard of life than the 1990’s.
Presently, the cities and megapolises with their clogged and conjusted built
environment are more plagued with fire disasters than their rural counterparts. The
modem day buildings, such as residential occupancies, office premises, educational
institutes, shopping complexes, hotels, hospitals, museums, etc., are far too prone to
fires due to their inflammable paints, combustible wood works, wall-to-wall
carpetings, air conditioning installations, fire sensitive equipments and gadgets.244 For
instance, the fire at Uphaar Grand Cinema hall in Delhi, in June 1997, that consumed
the lives of sixty persons, was a terrible tragedy caused by a spark in the transformer
in the basement which unfortunately spread faster due to combustible plastics and
plywood used in the interiors of the theatre245
240 Fires cause severe damage to property, both directly and indirectly; damage to buildings and their
contents by burning; damage to structures, interior finishes, and objects from heat, smoke and
combustion ; and water damage resulting from the effects of fire fighting.
241 S.K.Dheri and G.CMisra, Supra note 210, p.306.
242 Ibid., p. 308.
243 Id., p. 305.
244 P.C.Sinha, Supra note 35, p. 134.
245 S.K.Dheri and G.C.Misra, Supra note 210, p. 309.
119
Also the advent of luxurious and lavish materials, usually made up of
inflammable stuffs, has created a new type of hazard, which give off toxic fumes
during fire incidents, either when they are used in constructions or disposed away as
scrap.246 For example, Jwalapuri in Delhi, Asia’s largest plastic scrap market which
went up in flames, spewed toxic smoke affecting the people in the neighbourhood in
June 1995.247
So, the common causes of fire disasters include, reckless proliferation of
illegal electricity connections, often without fuses or circuit trippers to even out power
surges and fluctuations; use of substandard quality circuitry components or their poor
and improper maintenance; overloading of electrical circuits; leakages in petrol, diesel
and kerosene generators; short circuits in the proximity of the burgeoning number of
non-valved liquid petroleum gas cylinders at homes and restaurants; illegal stationing
of imflammable materials in residential colonies;248 and arson, and terror activities,
which occur frequently in the country.249
Thus, the new economic order of globalization and privatization of the market
forces with unprotected industrialization, and the high rate of rural-urban migration
with rising standards of living, have resulted in pockets of fire higher than ever
before.250
3.3.5
Other Man-Made Disasters
In a society where gender, caste, religious, regional and class differentials are
extremely pronounced, and differences, entitlements and obligations along the same
differentials are clearly defined and observed, human-instigated disasters tend to
246 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p. 318.
247 Meenakshi Nath, Supra note 168, p. 325.
248 For instance, a major fire broke in a house used as an oil depot in New Seelampur, Delhi, in May
1997 killing two; a fire in a scrap godown in an unauthorized residential colony in Ghaziabad, Uttar
Pradesh killed one and injured many in March 2007.
249 S.K.Dheri and G.C.Misra, Supra note 210, p. 306.
250 Ibid., p. 312.
120
occur frequently and often with great intensity.251 So today, the definition of humanmade disasters has widened to include conflicts, riots, insurgency, epidemics and so
on, along with the popularly known ones like, fires, industrial accidents, structural
failures, etc.252
3.3.5.1
Riots and conflicts
Riots and conflicts are a common sight in the Indian society. They are
triggered on the pretext of any shocking, unpleasant or unexpected news or event, or
dissatisfying development, such as death of a popular personality, defeat in an
election or a game, hike in educational fees, any untoward incident hurting religious
sentiments, etc. The latter especially, which result in communal riots are the most
sensitive ones, but quite a regular feature in the country’s unique social setting, with a
multitude of religions, castes, and sub-castes.
‘Communalism ’ is often explained in terms of ‘religious fanaticism’, and as an
identity-marker of a supposedly homogenous community. It is a modem phenomenon
which began with the British colonization of the subcontinent.253 The first major post­
independence communal conflagration occurred in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh in
1961, when a muslim attempted to break a hindu bidi manufacturer’s monopoly.
Thereafter, several riots followed, such as: the Ahmedabad riots (1969) that claimed
more than 1,000 lives, which was ostensibly kickstarted by a cow stomping on a
Muslim child and subsequently some Muslims chasing sadhus and stoning Jagannath
temple; the Bhiwandi and Jalgaon riots (1970) which erupted on the eve of Shiv
Jayanti killed about 250 people; the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi (1984) killed about 4,000
odd Sikhs; the Meerut riots (1987) claimed more than 400 people when pro-Hindu
251 S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, Supra note 13, p. 7.
252 Surinder Jaswal, Supra note 11, p. 137
253 Purushotam Agrawal, “BeyondReligion", S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in, "India
Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative’, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 231.
121
police fired on an unarmed Muslim mob; the Bhagalpur riots (1989) which killed
about 1,000 people was started by a rumor that Hindu students were killed and thrown
into wells;254 such many more riots have occurred later also.
But a few of the most grave communal riots torched by extreme communalism
were in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition, unabated violence against Dalits,
alleged state excesses in Punjab, the sub-ethnic North-East tangle, and others.255
Intense communal feelings are habitually erated by petty issues like music in
front of mosques or cow slaughter, and such other acts. Also rumours abetted by the
media play a major role in almost every communal riot, by virtue of their proximity to
the source, where they disseminate rumours as ‘news’. Since most riots are cloaked in
deceptions, their triggers are often not the true causative factors.256
So, major communal disturbances are often believed to be the result of an
evergrowing gap between different classes, and a political tug-of-war between secular
and communal parties for the votes of majority and minority communities, that which
are usually flared through incitement, and political conditions have, in several regions,
aggravated social and cultural differences and presented existent vagaries with potent
opportunities for conflicts and riots.257
3.3.S.2
Terror Activities
India has long suffered terror and violence from extremist attacks based on
separatist and secessionist movements, as well as ideological disagreements. Terror
activities are primarily attributable to terrorism, militancy and naxalism. These have
terrorized and afflicted several regions of the country at differing intensities.
254 Asghar Ali Engineer, “Communal Violence”, S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, (ed) in,"India
Disasters Report-Towards a Policy Initiative", New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 226228.
255 S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, Supra note 13, p. 8.
256 Asghar Ali Engineer, Supra note 254, pp. 225-227.
257 S.Parasuraman and P.V.Unnikrishnan, Supra note 4, p. 155.
122
Terrorism is a controversial term with varied definitions. One definition
typically defines ‘terrorism’ as “premeditated violence used to achieve specific
political, social, or religious objectives by instilling fear among the general public.”
Another definition defines as the “use or threatened use of violence for the purpose of
creating fear in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological goal.” Under the
latter definition, the targets are anyone, including civilians, government officials,
military personnel, or people serving the interests of governments. However, no
universal definition of terrorism exists, partly because, it being such a variegated
phenomenon.
Terrorism has scourged the country longer than any other democracy in the
world by claiming scores of lives. The regions most affected with terrorist activities
are Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Delhi.259 Jammu and Kashmir have a
longterm history of terrorism, and are still battling against it. In Maharashtra, Pune,260
Mumbai and Malegaon261 have borne the brunt of terrorism. However, Mumbai has
been the most preferred target for most terrorist attacks.262 And Delhi, the national
capital, has also been the focus of extremist attention in the past few years.263 There
258 Richard. A. Falkenrath, “Problem of Preparedness: U.S. Readiness for a Domestic Terrorist
Attackvol.25, International security, http://www.jstor.org, p. 149.
259 Aroon Purine, ‘From the editor-in -chief, India Today, November 14,2005, p. 1.
260 Pune was ravaged by a bomb blast in the famous German Bakery, near Osho Ashram in February
2010.
261 Malegaon, the Muslim and power loom hub, was terrorized with bomb blasts twice: in September
2006 and September 2008.
262 Over the past few years, there have been a series of attacks, including explosions in local trains in
July 2006, the unprecedented attacks in November 2008, and the most recent one being the July 2011
bomb blasts.
263 The city has witnessed bomb attacks at the army camp in the Red Fort in 2000, an armed attack on
the Parliament in December 2001, serial blasts across the city in October 2005(during Diwali festival),
and September 2008.
123
have also been terror attacks in the other parts of the country, like, Bengaluru,264
Hyderabad,265 Varanasi,266 etc.
So, contemporary terrorist movements display enormous diversity in
motivation, organisation, geographic domain and professionalism. They are becoming
more fanatical in their tactics, and increasingly employing weapons of mass
destruction.267
India also faces another extremist threat: a Maoist insurgency known as
“Naxalism”. The violent revolutionaries called ‘naxalites’ are left-wing extremists,
who take their name from Naxalbari, a village in West-Bengal, where they first staged
an uprising in 1967. They fundamentally challenge state power with violence to
support their stated goal of helping the landless poor, tribal people and lower
castes.268
Naxalism has emerged across a broad swathe of central India, nicknamed as
the “red corridor” to claim a growing number of lives. The red corridor runs from the
border with Nepal through thirteen of India’s twenty-eight states, passing through the
woods and jungles of Central India, where the group takes refuge and recruits from
the region’s impoverished population. The states of Bihar, West-Bengal, Orissa,
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are highly affected with
naxal activity, but Chhattisgarh amongst all of them, is a witness to the most maoist
related violence.
264 Bengaluru, the IT hub of India, has witnessed attack on IISc in December 2005, and serial blasts in
July 2008.
265 Hyderabad, a heritage centre was ripped by twin blasts in August 2007, at a crowded Lumbini Park
and a popular eating joint at Kothi.
266 Varanasi, the pilgrimage centre has suffered from bomb blasts in March 2006 and December 2010.
267 Richard. A. Falkenrath, Supra note 258, p. 150.
268 Prakash Singh, “The Naxalite Movement in India”, 2nd ed., New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Pvt.
Ltd., 2010, p. 3.
124
Therefore, naxal threat is known to be the biggest internal security challenge
ever faced by the country.
One more major threat that the country faces is the violence of ‘Militancy’.
Militancy exists in the north-eastern India, which consists of seven states (also known
as the Seven Sisters): Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram,
Manipur and Nagaland.
Militancy persists in this region of the country, supported by external sources,
with several organisations functioning and demanding independent status for the
states. A few of the most prominent of these are: the United Liberation Front of
Asom (ULFA) formed in 1979, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB),
Manipur’s National Liberation Front, People’s Liberation Army (PLA), etc.
The ULFA, NDFB and other militant organisations carry out endless terrorist
attacks in the region. They assassinate political opponents, attack police and other
security forces, blast rail-road tracks, and attack other infrastructural facilities. They
are also known to have strong links with the naxalites.269
Thus everywhere, all the terror activities mainly claim the innocent lives of the
people: the average Indians.
3.3.5.3
Stampedes
A ‘stampede’ is an act of mass impulse among a crowd of people, in which the
crowd collectively begins running with no clear direction or purpose. Stampedes most
oftenly occur during religious pilgrimages, and professional sports, music, or cultural
events, as these events tend to involve a large amount of people. They often occur in
269 Sanjib Baruah, “Gulliver’s Troubles: State and Militants in North-East India”, Economic and
Political Weekly, October 12, 2002, p. 4178.
125
times of mass panic as a result of a fire,270 explosion, or a rumour,271 as people try to
get away rapidly from the source of danger.272
A stampede is commonly referred to as ‘crowd crush’, and deaths occur
primarily due to ‘compressive asphyxiation’ and not from trampling.273
In India, majority of the stampede disasters occur in pilgrim centres. A
dramatic increase in recent years has caused national concern. Only between 2005 and
2010, more than 850 devotees have been killed in temple disasters in various parts of
the country.274 The latest tragedy occurred at the popular hill shrine of Sabarimala in
Kerala, where 104 pilgrims died in a stampede in January 2011.275 So stampedes or
‘temple crushes’, which occur regularly during Hindu religious festivals and fairs are
common events in the country.276
Therefore, severe overcrowding of the areas around any event, coupled with
sudden wild rumours or any untoward incident causes panic among the people and
triggers a crowd crush.
3.3.5.4 Epidemics
Unlike natural hazards, the renewed surge of diseases and epidemics is
attributed to humankind’s short-sightedness and negligence.277 ‘Disease’, which is a
very common hazard leads to disaster when a pathogen278 creates a disease outbreak
270 For example, in December 1995, fire in a religious ceremony resulted in stampede killing 400
people in New Delhi.
271 For instance, the stampede triggered by a ‘tsunami’ rumour caused the death of 18 people in
Mumbai, in July 2005.
272 Disaster Management India Report, “Killer Stampedes”, http://arc.gov.in, p. 87.
273 For instance, 42 people chocked to death in a stampede at a flood relief camp in Chennai, in
December 2005.
274 Some of the major temple stampedes are: Mandhara Devi temple stampede in Satara district,
Maharashtra, in January 2005 left 300 pilgrims dead; Chamunda Devi temple crush in Jodhpur,
Rajasthan, in September 2008 killed 168; Naini Devi temple crush in Himachal Pradesh in 2008 killed
150; a temple crush in Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh killed 63 pilgrims in March 2010.
275 “Hindus Flock of Temples ofDeath”, The Hitavada, January 16, 2011, p. 5
276 Disaster Management India Report, Supra note 272, p. 87.
277 Y.S.Gill, Supra note 24, p. 87.
276 An agent carrying disease, like a virus, bacteria or a parasite.
126
or ‘epidemic ’ amongst a human population which lacks immunity. For instance,
pathogenic infections are capable of causing large-scale disasters like, malaria,
cholera, yellow fever, meningitis, AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome),
etc., especially in the poorest countries of the world, where the control methods are
far from satisfactory.279
The conditions necessary for epidemics often exist long before the outbreak
occurs and the disease itself may well be endemic in the region. In all cases, a
pathogen is needed to be introduced into a suitable environment followed by an
incubation period. The outbreak is triggered by environmental malformations,
changing food habits and lifestyles of the society or more often by other events like
natural or man-made disasters, which provoke large population movements with over­
crowding and poor sanitation in refugee camps or re-settled areas.
Thus, poor housing, malnutrition, lack of hygiene, inadequate clean water
supplies, lack of sewerage system, and restricted access to health care facilities, all
play a part in rendering the populations vulnerable to diseases and epidemics.280
This section (other man-made disasters), along with the above widely
publicized disasters, takes in its fold the other less talked about disasters also, like
mass deaths due to food poisonings, water contaminations, or consumption of
spurious liquor or medicines, which are regular tragedies in the country filled with
poor and ignorant masses.
Universally, the whole concept of human-made disasters has widened
considerably to imbibe all sorts of hazards created by man and his inventions, which
are harmful in one or the other way. Mankind, with most of its hasty and unproven
innovations, and thoughtless actions has brought untold miseries onto itself. The
279 Keith Smith, Supra note 20, p. 237.
280 Ibid., P- 244.
127
hazards created by it are more horrendous than the ones created by nature. The
number of hazards and their relative disastrous qualities have increased manifold with
the years, in the name of development.
Thus the contemporary definition of man-made disasters, in addition to all the
disasters and hazards discussed here in, also includes other costly misdeeds of man,
such as pollutions (land, water and air), desertifications, occupational diseases, policy
disasters, mass displacements, etc. And, it is beyond doubt that these hazards bring
immeasurable miseries to mankind. But, as their effect is felt only in the long run, as
they are not immediate in their on-set, these hazards are left out of the purview of this
study, which concentrates only on sudden and rapid on-set hazards that are triggered
by man’s immediate and sudden failures.
3.4
Conclusion
Decades ago, the historical distinction between natural and human-induced
hazards was generally accepted. This was evident in the IDNDR, initiated by the UN
which incorporated the term “Natural” in its definition and terms of reference.
But lately, the contemporary disaster managers have adopted a wider
definition because they see “Natural” and “Man-Made” hazards, not as separate
entities, but rather as so intricately linked that they are considered together. And
today, for practical purposes, the distinction has given way to emphasis on the
interdependence of human activities and natural events in shaping the frequencies and
intensities of accidents and disasters.
So earlier, when ‘natural disasters’ were talked about, the usual refrain was
that they were the consequence of the interplay of the forces of nature. Now however,
it is accepted that they are human-made to a startling degree. There has been a
128
growing realization that some ‘natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, cyclones
and landslides are indeed precipitated by human activities, like felling of forests,
serious damage to mountain ecology, overuse of groundwater, changing patterns of
cultivation, etc. Therefore, it is strongly believed that natural hazards are not uniquely
dependent on geophysical processes, but are related more to the scale of human
exploitatioa
In the same way, disasters due to breakdown in industrial plants, nuclear
reactors, dams, etc., which plague the world over, are caused on many occasions by
natural forces, like earthquakes, floods, cyclones, etc.
Thus in the present scenario, all catastrophes either natural or man-made, have
their inevitable origin in certain combinations of physical features and human
activities. But, the tendency towards admitting more human responsibility for
disasters is due to several factors like: highly populated conglomerates occupying
hazardous areas; inconsiderate development and environmental degradation due to
industrialization, urbanization, population explosion and poverty, depletion of
traditional resources of energy and raw materials and research for the new ones, and
lastly, scientific and technological progress of man with unthinking exploitation and
endless encroachment of nature.
So today, mankind which boasts of centrally air-conditioned sky scrapers,
gigantic dams and bridges, different industries of various sizes, magnificient airports
and harbours, etc., continuously grapples with concomitant risks from either disaster.