Natural Disaster vs Man Made Disaster

History of mankind is replete with both natural disasters as well as man made disasters. However, the point to note is that whereas in ancient
times it were only natural disasters that caused havoc on humanity, today man made disasters are playing an equal, if not bigger role in
causing destruction of life and property at places of the world. The sad and tragic part of this debate between natural and man made
disasters is that as mankind has developed and become technologically advanced, frequency and magnitude of man made disasters has
increased in the same proportion. This has led many to believe that man made disasters that are avoidable, are more tragic in the sense that
innocent lives lost in these disasters could have been saved. Let us take a closer look at these two categories of disasters; the natural
disaster and man made disaster.

Natural disasters

Earthquakes, floods, landslides, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornados, t-sunami and other such hazards are natural disasters that have led to
colossal loss of property and lives since ancient times. These disasters create more havoc when they occur near human colonies resulting in
huge financial and property losses apart from claiming priceless and innocent lives. A natural hazard is not termed as a disaster if it takes
place in a remote area that is not inhabited by human beings.

There have been umpteen incidents of floods, droughts, Tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the past 100 years that have
resulted in millions of people losing their lives with incalculable loss of property in places where they occurred. Health hazards are also
included in the list of natural disasters as medicines and drugs were not available at the time epidemics struck claiming millions of lives. The
worst in the last 100 years was the spread of Spanish Flu in 1918 that claimed 50 million lives worldwide.

Man made disasters

Man made disasters are those disasters that may be smaller in magnitude but have increased in frequency with all the development and
advancement. These are hazards that are a result of human intent or negligence, or result from human designs that cannot withstand natural
forces.

There has always been crime in human societies but it has rarely caused as much havoc as terrorism, which is a special type of crime
against humanity. Terrorism has become an international phenomenon and the world saw its horrible consequences with the infamous 9/11
incident in US in which there was colossal loss of property and nearly 3000 human lives.

Civil wars raging inside many nations of the world are another example of man made disasters that result in loss of property and lives. Wars
between nations are ongoing phenomenons that cause innumerable deaths and loss of property. However, no war can match the intensity
and loss that resulted from the two World Wars.

Accidents are another man made disaster that cause loss of lives and property. All over the world mining accidents have taken place, which
also has an environmental impact. The Bhopal Gas tragedy in India and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the erstwhile Soviet Union are
some of the worst man made disasters. The recent Tsunami that struck Japan was a natural disaster but the way it affected the nuclear
reactors there transformed itself in a man made disaster of a huge magnitude.

Summary

As their names indicate, natural disasters are natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, epidemics, wildfires etc that result in loss of
lives and property. On the other hand, disasters that strike mankind due to either intent or negligence of humans are man made disasters.
Some of the examples are wars, civil wars, terrorism, errors in designing, nuclear disasters, industrial disasters etc.

Types of Disasters

Disasters can take many different forms, and the duration can range from an hourly disruption to days or weeks of ongoing destruction. Below is a list of the

various types of disasters – both natural and man-made or technological in nature – that can impact a community.

Natural Types of Disasters

 Agricultural diseases & pests

 Damaging Winds  Hurricanes and tropical storms

 Drought and water shortage  Landslides & debris flow

 Earthquakes  Thunderstorms and lighting

 Emergency diseases  Tornadoes

(pandemic influenza)  Tsunamis
 Extreme heat  Wildfire
 Floods and flash floods  Winter and ice storms
 Hail  Sinkholes

-
Hurricanes and tropical storms are among the most powerful natural disasters because of their size and destructive potential. Tornadoes are relatively brief but

violent, potentially causing winds in excess of 200 mph. Both earthquakes and tornadoes strike suddenly without warning.

Flooding is the most common of natural hazards, and requires an understanding of the natural systems of our environment, including floodplains and the frequency

of flooding events. Wildfires are more prevalent in the event of a drought. Disasters impacting food supply can be extremely costly; American officials say that a

food contamination scare similar to the one that hit the Belgian poultry industry in the 1990’s could jeopardize U.S. agricultural exports in excess of $140 billion.

Man-Made and Technological Types of Disasters

 Hazardous materials
 Power service disruption &  Chemical threat and biological
blackout weapons
 Cyber attacks
 Nuclear power plant and nuclear
blast
 Explosion

 Radiological emergencies
 Civil unrest

Disasters also can be caused by humans. Hazardous materials emergencies include chemical spills and groundwater contamination. Workplace fires are more

common and can cause significant property damage and loss of life. Communities are also vulnerable to threats posed by extremist groups who use violence

against both people and property.

High-risk targets include military and civilian government facilities, international airports, large cities and high-profile landmarks. Cyber-terrorism involves attacks

against computers and networks done to intimidate or coerce a government or its people for political or social objectives.

Road accident is most unwanted thing to happen to a road user, though they happen quite often. The most unfortunate thing is that we don't learn from
our mistakes on road. Most of the road users are quite well aware of the general rules and safety measures while using roads but it is only the laxity on
part of road users, which cause accidents and crashes. Main cause of accidents and crashes are due to human errors. We are elaborating some of the
common behaviour of humans which results in accident.
1.Over Speeding
2.Drunken Driving
3.Distractions to Driver
4.Red Light Jumping
5.Avoiding Safety Gears like Seat belts and Helmets
6.Non-adherence to lane driving and overtaking in a wrong manner

Various national and international researches have found these as most common behavior of Road drivers, which leads to accidents.

Over Speeding:
Most of the fatal accidents occur due to over speeding. It is a natural psyche of humans to excel. If given a chance man is sure to achieve infinity in
speed. But when we are sharing the road with other users we will always remain behind some or other vehicle. Increase in speed multiplies the risk of
accident and severity of injury during accident. Faster vehicles are more prone to accident than the slower one and the severity of accident will also be
more in case of faster the severity of accident will also be more in case of faster vehicles. Higher the speed, greater the risk. At high speed the vehicle
needs greater distance to stop i.e. braking distance. A slower vehicle comes to halt immediately while faster one takes long way to stop and also skids
a long distance due to law of notion. A vehicle moving on high speed will have greater impact during the crash and hence will cause more injuries. The
ability to judge the forthcoming events also gets reduced while driving at faster speed which causes error in judgment and finally a crash.
Drunken Driving:
Consumption of alcohol to celebrate any occasion is common. But when mixed with driving it turns celebration into a misfortune. Alcohol reduces
concentration. It decreases reaction time of a human body. Limbs take more to react to the instructions of brain. It hampers vision due to dizziness.
Alcohol dampens fear and incite humans to take risks. All these factors while driving cause accidents and many a times it proves fatal. For every
increase of 0.05 blood alcohol concentration, the risk of accident doubles. Apart from alcohol many drugs, medicines also affect the skills and
concentration necessary for driving. First of all, we recommend not to consume alcohol. But if you feel your merrymaking is not complete without
booze, do not drive under the influence of alcohol. Ask a teetotaler friend to drop you home.

Distraction to Driver:
Though distraction while driving could be minor but it can cause major accidents.
Distractions could be outside or inside the vehicle. The major distraction now a days is talking on mobile phone while driving. Act of talking on phone
occupies major portion of brain and the smaller part handles the driving skills. This division of brain hampers reaction time and ability of judgement.
This becomes one of the reasons of crashes. One should not attend to telephone calls while driving. If the call is urgent one should pull out beside the
road and attend the call. Some of the distractions on road are:
1.Adjusting mirrors while driving
2.Stereo/Radio in vehicle
3.Animals on the road
4.Banners and billboards.

The driver should not be distracted due to these things and reduce speed to remain safe during diversions and other kind of outside distractions.

Red Light jumping:

It is a common sight at road intersections that vehicles cross without caring for the light. The main motive behind Red light jumping is saving time. The
common conception is that stopping at red signal is wastage of time and fuel. Studies have shown that traffic signals followed properly by all drivers
saves time and commuters reach destination safely and timely. A red light jumper not only jeopardizes his life but also the safety of other road users.
This act by one driver incites other driver to attempt it and finally causes chaos at crossing. This chaos at intersection is the main cause of traffic jams.
Eventually everybody gets late to their destinations. It has also been seen that the red light jumper crosses the intersection with greater speed to avoid
crash and challan but it hampers his ability to judge the ongoing traffic and quite often crashes.

Avoiding Safety Gears like seat belts and helmets:

Use of seat belt in four-wheeler is now mandatory and not wearing seat belt invites penalty, same in the case of helmets for two wheeler drivers.
Wearing seat belts and helmet has been brought under law after proven studies that these two things reduce the severity of injury during accidents.
Wearing seat belts and helmets doubles the chances of survival in a serious accident. Safety Gears keep you intact and safe in case of accidents. Two
wheeler deaths have been drastically reduced after use of helmet has been made mandatory. One should use safety gears of prescribed standard and
tie them properly for optimum safety.
Detrimental effects of traffic on environment
1. Safety 2. Noise 3. Land Consumption 4. Air Pollution 5. Degrading the Aesthetics

How different factors of Roads contribute in Accidents:

Drivers: Over-speeding, rash driving, violation of rules, failure to understand signs, fatigue, alcohol.
Pedestrian: Carelessness, illiteracy, crossing at wrong places moving on carriageway, Jaywalkers.
Passengers: Projecting their body outside vehicle, by talking to drivers, alighting and boarding vehicle from wrong side travelling on footboards,
catching a running bus etc.
Vehicles: Failure of brakes or steering, tyre burst, insufficient headlights, overloading, projecting loads.
Road Conditions: Potholes, damaged road, eroded road merging of rural roads with highways, diversions, illegal speed breakers.
Weather conditions: Fog, snow, heavy rainfall, wind storms, hail storms.
Need of better disaster management system

Introduction

Disasters are a part of human race. It is natural to face the disasters but the worrying part is the dramatic increase of the
natural disasters in last some years. The damage caused to the human race by the disasters has been a serious issue on
national as well as on international arena. Look back at the past decade; the rate of manmade disasters and natural
disasters is up considerably.

During the period 1994 to 1998, the average disasters per year were 428 which climbed to 707 during 1999 to 2003. It was a
sharp rise of 60% over the previous years. The biggest rise came in the countries that had low human development. In such
regions, the rise was 142% over the previous years. The different types of disasters that resulted in significant damages are
drought, flood, technological disaster, and rise in temperature, windstorm and many others. All these events result in the
global economic loss that goes above US $1000 billion per year.

The scene in India

Coming to the local scenario, it is no different from the global scenario. Remember the big disasters including the cyclone in
Orissa in 1999, earthquake in Gujarat in 2001 and the devastating Tsunami in 2004. The disasters affected the million
people across the country resulting in terrible loss of life and property. It snatches away the means of livelihood from people.
They have a colossal impact on the structure of economy.

The significance of Disaster Management

The simple term Disaster Management comprises the whole bunch of disaster-related activities. Some people think
it just as a means of helping the people after the disaster. It is connected with the post-disaster activities done by
the relief and reconstruction authorities. However, disaster management is beyond the post-disaster activities. It
not only covers the post-disaster activities but is also linked to the pre-disaster activities.

Disaster Management Activities

The modern disaster managers are busy finding and planning the measures that can help minimize the loss of
disasters. The people assigned with the responsibilities are those people who work in the development field and
are a part of urban, agricultural, economic and regional development projects. One of the finest examples is of the
housing specialists who prepare a low income housing project to help out the people in a disaster prone area. The
specialists have the responsibility to build such houses that can minimize the loss in future disaster. The houses
should reflect the disaster-resistant construction strategies.

Disaster Management and development activities

Coming to the agriculture zone, the specialists have to plan the projects in such a way that they can stop the
environmental degradation in the future that can be caused from droughts, floods or other natural hazards. Most of
the disaster management activities are connected with the development projects. Only some of the activities
revolve around the emergency response. It is about everything, the emergency assistance, the long term
maintenance and the arrangement of livelihood for the displaced persons. The key is to care about the refugees.
The refugee field is a wide term that requires the development skills and the complete awareness of legal, political
and humanitarian issues.

The need of the hour

Disaster Management helps the country to know about the potential hazards of the disasters. It provides the
answer to the many questions like how, when, where the disasters can occur? The study enables to know the
problems that can arise in the event of disaster. Talking about the figures, about 59% of the land mass in India is
 susceptible to seismic hazard. Almost 5% of the area is susceptible to floods and almost 8% is prone to cyclones.

The percentage is at a higher end when we talk about the agricultural land that is susceptible to drought. The figure
stands at 70%. There are many other parts that are prone to landslides and avalanches. So, the problem of natural
disaster stands in all regions. The manmade hazards can also be not ignored. They even cause a huge loss of life
and property. To counter all the problems it becomes essential for the country to set up an efficient disaster
management system that can look after the pre-disaster development projects as well as the post-disaster
activities.

Working on Capacity

The word capacity holds a lot more significance in disaster management. It is the second name for the means and
resources that act as a strong support to encounter the impacts of the disaster. It prepares the regions to withstand
the disaster, prevent or mitigate the effects and after that quickly recover from the losses. The capacity can be
divided further into two groups: Physical capacity and Socio-economic capacity.

Conclusion

In simple terms, Disaster Management System is the key to the disaster risk reduction. The first advantage of
system is preparedness that provides governments, individuals and the communities to respond quickly with the
disaster solutions. It can be in the form of viable emergency plans, the warning systems, the inventory
management, evacuation plans and the right training of personnel. The second advantage is mitigation of losses in
terms of life, property and livelihood.

 « Previous
 Next »
Post your comment

Discussion

 RE: Need of better disaster management system -Hemant Sharma (08/12/14)

 There is no questioning that India has been always a vulnerable country to natural disasters. The natural calamities such as folds, droughts,
cyclones, earthquakes and landslides are recurring phenomena. The recent Uttarakhand disaster has left our disaster management
authorities gasping. There are many eyebrows being raised about the role of our National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Even
after so many breakthroughs in science and technology, the human death toll and economic losses have just mounted. There are various
guidelines issued by the government of India but they never seem to make any considerable amount of impact.

The objective of NDMA was simply to prevent disasters in the country. However, as it turned around people in Uttarakhand were caught
unawares by the flash floods and landslides in the absences of any warning or alert. It is very unfortunate that these kind situations keep
popping up in our country where more than millions get affected by disasters every year. The post disaster actions have also not been quick
and adequate. India’s inefficiency in tackling these disasters has raised many concerns in a hazard prone country.

The warning system in India has been articulated on paper with finesse but when it comes to practical use of these systems, the authorities
fail to implement the same with effectiveness. There were many projects in the pipeline setup by the government to prevent the natural
disasters that hit our country every year. But as it seems they were either left in the midcourse or were to be redesigned because of its poor
planning. If these projects were implemented on time then we would have reduced the losses to a bare minimum.

We all are aware of the fact that India is struck by disasters very often, still there seems to be no plan in place to tackle the disaster even
before it has arrived. Tsunami should have been a lesson for the Disaster Management Authorities of India. But there is still lack of required
equipments to prevent the disasters. Another drawback is the relief that comes after the disaster. Relief is the main aspect as it provides
help to the affected. In India, relief is hard to come by on time. Affected people still have to wait for days after the disaster to get proper food
and water supplies.

Rehabilitation is another important aspect of disaster management. This is an area which should be given proper attention as this is the part
where the city or the affected place gets reconstructed. Providing relief is important but it is also very important to reconstruct the town.
Restoration of infrastructure, medical facilities, schools, houses and other sources of living is a mandate too.

After having witnessed hazards on a huge scale, its time India prepare and plan themselves for future disasters. The government at the
central as well as at the state/district level has to implement various projects to prevent the disasters initially. Government should try and
initiate a nationwide awareness which would help people to understand the disaster management strategies. There should be a proper
response team including the doctors, paramedics, engineers, etc that can provide rapid response to disaster. Emergency operation centre
and trigger mechanism is also very important. People should know way before the disaster is about to hit the city.

India being a hazard prone country has made several significant changes in the disaster management program. With the youth coming in, a
new culture of preparedness, quick response and prevention of disaster is being accompanied. India is working very hard as a nation to
deal with the various disasters that struck the nation every year. However, we are still a long way to go and without support of the people of
the country and the government it won’t be possible. Thus, we have to make sure that we start the change at the grass root level and then
see it coming up to the top level.