Disaster in Asia

Disasters in Asia

1.  Between the years 1991 to 2000 Asia has accounted for 83 per cent of the population affected by disasters globally
2. . While the number of people affected in the rest of the world were 1,11,159, in Asia the number was 5,54,439.
3.  Within Asia, 24 per cent of deaths due to disasters occur in India, on account of its size, population and vulnerability.
4.  Floods and high winds account for 60 per cent of all disasters in India.

INDIA’S VULNERABILITY TO NATURAL DISASTERS
• Many parts of the Indian sub-continent are susceptible to different types of disasters owing to the unique topographic and climatic characteristics
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• About 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and 68% of the area is susceptible to drought.

• The 5,700 km long coastline of the India is vulnerable to tropical cyclones arising in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea

• The decade 1990-2000, has been one of very high disaster losses within the country.

• Losses in the Orissa Cyclone in 1999, and later, the Gujarat Earthquake in 2001 alone amount to several thousand crore of Rupees, while the total expenditure on relief and reconstruction in Gujarat alone has been to the tune of Rs 11,500 crore.

Man made disastersIndia has also been witnessing an increasing incidence of manmade disasters.

•  India faced one of the worst manmade disasters on 3rd December 1984 when Bhopal Gas Tragedy occurs.
•  The list of manmade disasters like train accidents, aircraft crashes, fire in high rise buildings, mine disasters, industrial and chemical disasters are ever increasing for various reasons.
•  While substantial progress has been made in other sectors of human development, there is need to do more towards mitigating the effect of disasters.