NATURAL HAZARDS AND DISASTERS

of human beings that accelerate or intensify disasters indirectly. Landslides and floods due to deforestation, unscientific land use and construction activities in fragile areas are some of the disasters that are the results of indirect human actions. Can you identify some other human activities going on in and around your neighbourhood and schools that can lead to disasters in the near future? Can you suggest some measures to prevent it? It is a common experience that human-made disasters have efforts are on at various levels to prevent and success has been only nominal so far, it is possible to prevent some of these disasters created by human actions. As opposed to this, very little is possible to prevent natural disasters; therefore, the best way out is to emphasise on natural disaster mitigation and Institute of Disaster Management, India, Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the World Conference on Disaster Management in May at Yokohama, Japan, etc. are some of the concrete steps towards this direction initiated at different levels. Most often it is observed that scholars use disasters and natural hazards as interchangeable. Both are related phenomena, yet quite distinct