NATURAL HAZARDS AND DISASTERS

N ATURAL D ISASTERS AND H AZARDS IN I NDIA It was discussed in one of the previous chapters that India is vast and diverse in terms of its physical and socio-cultural attributes. It is largely due to its vast geographical area, pluralities that scholars often described it using two meaningful adjectives like the ‘Indian-subcontinent’ and the ‘land of unity in diversity’. Its vastness in terms of natural attributes combined with its prolonged colonial past, continuing various forms of social population have enhanced its vulnerability to natural disasters. These observations can also be illustrated by focussing on some of the major natural disasters in India.

Earthquakes are by far the most unpredictable and highly destructive of all the natural disasters. You have already learnt the causes of earthquakes in your book Fundamentals of Physical Geography (NCERT, ). Earthquakes that are of tectonic origin have proved to be the most devastating and their area of influence is also quite large. These earthquakes result from a series of earth movements brought about by a sudden release of energy during the tectonic activities in the earth’s crust.

As compared to these, the earthquakes associated with volcanic eruption, rock fall, landslides, subsidence,