protect development infrastructure
(housing, hospitals, roads, bridges,
irrigation facilities, schools, water,
electricity etc.) created over
the years for the attainment of
development goals, instead faced
disasters. These natural activities
are certainly having potential
to damage and that is why it is
termed as hazard, not disaster. It
is called disasters only after it has
adverse impacts. Let me explain
this with example of the Gujarat
earthquake which took place on
the 26th January 2001 which is still
alive in the memory of many. The
earthquake which created huge
impact on the lives, property and
eroded development initiatives
completely in the Kutch area. On
the other hand, a bigger earthquake
took place in California just after
the week of the Gujarat earthquake
which went unnoticed. Nobody even
noticed and remembers the incident.
The question is why California
earthquake went unnoticed and
not considered as disaster even
though it was bigger on the Richter
scale? The answer is very simple.
Only those events are remembered
which have larger impact in terms
deaths, injury, number of affected
people and colossal damage of
property. South-Asian Tsunami
2004; Kashmir earthquake 2005;
Kosi floods, 2008; Pakistan floods
2010; Katrina hurricane 2005;
Haiti earthquake 2010 and Japan
Tsunami 2011 are a few examples.
The California earthquake was not
converted into disaster because
infrastructure could withstand the
force of earthquake; people have
developed their resilience (capacity
of a system, community or society
to resist or to change in order that
it may obtain an acceptable level
in functioning and structure). This
is determined by the degree to
which the social system is capable
of organizing itself, and the ability
to increase its capacity for learning
YOJANA March 2012
and adaptation, including the
capacity to recover from a disaster).
Hence we may say that hazards are
natural but disasters are un-natural.
The size and scale of disasters are
determined by us. And hence power
to reduce its impact is also within
our hands and not only in the hands
of nature alone. It is not the act of
God, it is our creation.
Geo-climatic and socioeconomic vulnerabilities and bad
development practices make India
prone to various disasters. People
get deprived of the outcomes of
development. More than 360
natural disasters have been recorded
over the past 35 years. Within the
first nine years of the 21st century
alone, various natural disasters
claimed nearly 400 thousands
lives and 247,480 thousand got
affected. People who lost their
lives are mostly poor. Natural
disasters have a great impact on
the Indian economy. The reported
direct losses on public and private
economic infrastructure in India
have amounted to around $30
billion over the past 35 years.
Reported direct losses from natural
disasters has more than quadrupled
during the 15 –year period 19811995 ($13.8 billion) compared
to the losses reported during the
previous 15-years($2.9 billion).
This alarming trend continues; the
total losses reported in most recent
six years period (1996-2001) of
US $ 13.8 billion have already
exceeded total losses incurred
over the last fifteen year period.
The Gujarat earthquake alone is
estimated to have caused a US$491655 million loss of output and a
US$2.2 billion negative impact
over three years on the state’s
fiscal deficit loss to property and
infrastructure has been estimated
at US $ 4800 crores. Losses are 20
times greater as percentage of GDP
in the developing countries than in
industrialized (MHA: 2011 p.4).
Sudden onset and low frequency
natural catastrophes (the subject of
this study) in India have primarily
been associated with flooding,
windstorm, and earthquake and
have had significant stock impacts.
Flooding triggered by torrential and
heavy monsoon rains has been a
significant source of losses, reported
at more than US $13 billion over
the past decade. Strong tropical
storms and cyclones have inflicted
disasters losses of approximately
$6.6 billion while earthquakes have
inflicted damages of close to $5
billion over the past ten years (WB
Report, 2002).
The economic costs of the
disaster deserves our attention
also because disaster erodes all
development gains and cuts across
the political boundaries created
by man. Disaster incident of one
country may have serious impact
on the other geographical regions
of the world. It is very true in the
case of India and South Asia region
(eg. heavy rains in Nepal may flood
India). These natural catastrophes
pose a serious and growing
challenge to development.
Disaster losses include not only
the shocking direct effects that
we see in news, such as the loss
of life, housing and infrastructure
but also indirect effects such as the
foregone production of goods and
services caused by interruptions in
utility services, transport, labour
supplies, suppliers, or markets
lives lost, social networks disrupted
and capital investments destroyed.
Funds targeted for development
are reallocated to finance relief and
reconstruction efforts, jeopardizing
long-term development goals. Post
disaster-reconstruction activities
strain public finances and divert
funds from economic development,
which further escalates the losses
19