Kaushal Kotwal
A natural disaster is any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth. The severity of a disaster is measured in lives lost, economic loss, and the ability of the population to rebuild. Events that occur in unpopulated area are not considered disaster so a flood on the uninhabited place would not count as a disaster but a flood in a populated area is called a natural disaster.
It is very painful to see Jammu and Kashmir nowadays in the grip of natural disasters i.e., floods which has broken all the previous records both in Kashmir and Jammu provinces. Worst sufferers are the poor people who reside in far flung hilly areas and due to continuous heavy rains many of them lost their precious lives and shelters. Their crops totally vanished making the survivors very hard to survive in the coming days. They are totally dependent now on help from the government or some social organisations that can come to the rescue at this hard time when the continuous rains brought floods both in River Jhelum and River Tawi in Kashmir and Jammu respectively causing huge damage and loss of lives making people around these rivers to shift to higher places to survive. Still relief in respect of food and shelter is not provided to the needy. People are clamouring for the same in Kashmir and Jammu too. All natural disasters cause loss in some way depending on the severity. Lives can be lost in any number of disasters. Falling buildings or trees, freezing to death, being washed away are just some of the deadly effects. Some disasters cause more loss of life than others and population density affects the death count as well. Then there is a loss of property which affects people living quarters, transportation, livelihood and means to live.
Our Jammu and Kashmir is an agriculture dependent state. Due to heavy rains and floods the standing crops have totally been damaged. Fields saturated in water and crops vanished making people of the State totally dependent on food from the relief agencies as their crops have been vanished due to this natural calamity. Heavy population in areas that get hit by floods has meant that more lives are lost. In some areas the population had gotten somewhat prepared for the eventuality of these natural calamities. However loss of property is still a problem and predicting many natural disasters i.e., heavy rains, floods etc is not easy. Scientists, geologists work hard to predict major disasters with all the technology available with them i.e., they can predict weather, storms, cyclones etc. in advance. But other weather related disasters that come up rather unexpectedly such as earthquakes, heavy torrent rains, landslides, floods are still unable to be predicted 100 per cent by the scientists. Sometimes a warning is there but it is often very short with catastrophic results. Areas that are not used to disasters, like these type of floods in Jammu and Kashmir, get affected by flash floods or sudden torrent rains can be disasterous in extreme way.
Now the need of hour is how to save the sufferers from this natural disaster. When an area is badly affected by natural disaster the reaction is always one of solidarity and aid needs quick to come. Although government is active and providing food and relief material to some of the affected on urgent basis but alone administration cannot reach to every nick and corner of the disaster. The need of the hour is some social organisations should step in along with local volunteers for local scale rescue work. Also those organisations which have chosen to make disaster relief their life work, when disasters hit it becomes the moral duty of the individuals of these organisations to step in for relief and people and their neighbours and countrymen to come to aid. These people should kindly step in and donate items, time and skills in order to help those affected by natural disaster. I will also suggest to the celebrities to do what they can do to raise money through concerts, phone marathons and donating from their personal savings and visiting affected areas with aid. They can rebuild, lives can be remade or start all over.
Due to this natural disaster of heavy rains and floods in Jammu and Kashmir a trauma has a big affect on the sufferers and getting counselling has been the focus of aid to heal emotionally as well as physically. It is clear that natural disasters are a part of life as we know it however science is making it more possible to predict, aid is faster at coming, and people are learning how to rebuild in safer areas.
It is high time to mention here that we the people living in Jammu and Kashmir are not habitual to these type of calamities. Now after watching this unfortunate disaster in future the people, the government agencies and social organisations should think in advance the remedial measures before such a disastrous calamity happens. We should be already prepared for that in respect of advance remedial measures.
