Question 1:
Which state suffers from most of floods?
- Bihar
- West Bengal
- Assam
- Uttar Pradesh
Answer:
(a). Bihar
Question 2:
In which district of Uttrakhand did the Malpa landslide take place?
- Bageshwar
- Champanat
- Almora
- Pithoragarh
Answer:
(d). Pithoragarh
Question 3:
Which state gets floods in winter months?
- Assam
- West Bengal
- Kerala
- Tamil Nadu
Answer:
(d). Tamil Nadu
Question 4:
In which River bed is Maujauli River island located?
- Ganga
- Brahmaputra
- Godavari
- Indus
Answer:
(b). Brahmaputra
Question 5:
Under which type of natural hazards, do Blizzards occur?
- Atmospheric
- Hydrologic
- Geomorphologic
- Biological
Answer:
(a). Atmospheric
Question 6:
When can a hazard become a disaster?
Answer:
Generally a hazard and a disaster have the same meaning. Both of these cause harm to people and property. When a hazard occurs on a large scale and occurs suddenly, it causes harm to a large population. It is then called a disaster.
Question 7:
Why are these more earthquakes in the Himalayas and in the north-eastern region of India?
Answer:
Himalayas and N.E. hilly region are earthquake prone areas. It is due to the fact that Indian plate is moving northward at the rate of 1 cm per year. The Indian plate collides with the Eurasian plate, with the result earthquakes occur along the Himalayan arc.
Question 8:
What are the basic requirements for the formation of a cyclone?
Answer:
(a) Hot wet air.
(b) Intense corriolis force
(c) Instability in troposphere
(d) Absence of strong vertical currents.
Question 9:
How are floods in Eastern India different from the areas in Western India?
Answer:
There is heavy rainfall in Eastern India. The rivers are over flooded and water spreads in the form of floods. But in Western India, there is sudden heavy rainfall which results in flood in some areas.
Question 10:
Why are there more droughts in Central and Western India?
Answer:
There in high variability of rainfall in these areas. It is more than 40% therefore, droughts occur when there is no rainfall for a long period.
Question 11:
Identify the landslide prone region of India and suggest some measures to mitigate the disasters caused by these.
Answer:
Landslide is the rapid sliding of large mass of
bed rocks down the slope. Landslides are generally
controlled by regional or localised factors. Hence
gathering information and monitoring the possibilities
of landslide in not only difficult by also costly.
Main Areas. Landslide controlling factors are
geology, geomorphic agents, slope, land use, vegetation
cover and human activities. India has been divided into
a number of zones.
Landslide Vulnerability Zones
(1) Very High Vulnerability Zone : Highly unstable,
relatively young mountainous areas in the Himalayas
and Andaman and Nicobar, high rainfall regions with
steep slopes in the Western Ghats and Nilgiris, the
north-eastern regions, along with areas that experience
frequent ground-shaking due to earthquakes, etc. and
areas of intense human activities, particularly those
related to construction of roads, dams, etc. are included
in this zone.
(2) High Vulnerability Zone : All the Himalayan
states and union territories and the states from the northeastern
region except the plains of Assam are included
in the high vulnerability zones.
(3) Moderate to Low Vulnerability Zone : Areas
that receive less precipitation such as Trans-
Himalayan areas of Ladakh and Spiti (Himachal
Pradesh), undulated yet stable relief and low
precipitation areas in the Aravali, rain shadow areas
in the Western and Eastern Ghats and Deccan plateau
also experience occasional landslides. Landslides due
to mining and subsidence are most common in states
like Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Goa and Kerala.
Other Areas : The remaining parts of India,
particularly states like Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal (except district
Darjeeling), Assam (except district Karbi Anglong) and
Coastal regions of the Southern States are safe as far
as landslides are concerned.
Mitigation
It is always advisable to adopt are-specific
measures to deal with landslides.
(a) Restriction on the construction and other developmental activities such as roads and
dams,
(b) Limiting agriculture to
valleys and areas with moderate slopes, and control on
the development of large settlements in the high
vulnerability zones, should be enforced.
(c) This should be supplemented by some positive actions like promoting large-scale
afforestation programmes and
construction of bunds to reduce the flow of water.
(d) Terrace farming should be encouraged in the north–
eastern hill states where Jhumming (Slash and Burn/
Shifting Cultivation) is still prevalent.
Question 12:
What is vulnerability? Divide India into natural vulnerability zones based on droughts and suggest some mitigation measures.
Answer:
Due to low rainfall and high variability of
rainfall, some regions are likely to suffer from droughts.
This is called natural vulnerability.
Droughts
The term ‘drought’ applied to an extended period when
there is a shortage of water availability due to inadequate
percipitation, excessive rate of evaporation and overutilisation
of water from the reservoirs and other
storages, including the ground water.
Drought Prone Areas in India
Indian agriculture has been heavily dependent on the
monsoon rainfall. Droughts and floods are the two
accompanying features of Indian climate. According to
some estimates, nearly 19 per cent of the total
geographical area of the country and 12 per cent of its
total population suffer due to drought every year. About
30 per cent of the country’s total area is identified as
drought prone affecting around 50 million people. It is
a common experience that while some parts of the
country reel under floods, there are regions that face
severe drought during the same period. Moreover, it
is also a common sight to witness that one region
suffers due to floods in one season and experiences
drought in the other. This is mainly because of the
large-scale variations and unpredictability in the
behaviour of the moonsoon in india. Thus, droughts
are widespread and common phenomena in most parts
of the country, but these are most recurrent and severe
in some and not so in others. On the basis of severity
of droughts, India can be divided into the following
regions :
1. Extreme Drought Affected Areas. Most parts
of Rajasthan, particularly areas to the west of the Aravali
hills, i.e., Marusthali and Kachchh regions of Gujarat
fall in this category. Included here are also the districts
like Jaisalmer and Barmer from the Indian desert that
receive less that 90 mm average annual rainfall.
2. Severe Drought Prone Area. Parts of eastern
Rajasthan, most parts of Madhya Pradesh, eastern parts
of Maharashtra, interior parts of Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka Plateau, northern parts of interior Tamil
Nadu and southern parts of Jharkhand and interior
Odisha are included in this category.
3. Moderate Drought Affected Area. Northern
parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, southern districts of Uttar
Pradesh, the remaining parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra
except Konkan, Jharkhand and Coimbatore plateau of
Tamil Nadu and interior Karnataka are included in
this category. The remaining parts of India can be
considered either free or less prone to the drought.
Mitigation of Droughts. Planning for droughts
should consider social and physical environment.
(i) Provision for the distribution of safe drinking
water, medicines for the victims and availability of
fodder and water for the cattle and shifting of the people
and their livestock to safer places, etc. are some steps
that need to be taken immediatley.
(ii) Identification of ground water potentital in the
form of aquifers, transfer of river water from the surplus
to the deflelt areas, and particularly planning for interlinking
of rivers and construction of reservoirs and
dams, etc. should be given a serious thought.
(iii) Remote sensing and satellite imageries can be
useful in identifying the possible river-basins that can
be inter-linked and in identifying the ground water
potential.
(iv) Dissemination of knowledge about droughtresistant
crops and proper training to practise the same
can be some of the long-term measures that will be
helpful in drought-mitigation.
(v) Rainwater harvesting can also be an effective
method in minimising the effects of drought.
Question 13:
When can developmental activities become the cause of disasters?
Answer:
Natural forces are not the only causes of
disasters. Disasters are also caused by some humn
activities. There are some activities carried by human
beings that are directly responsible for disasters. Bhopal
Gas tragedy, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, wars, release
of CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) and increase of
greenhouse gases, environmental pollutions like noise,
air, water and soil are some of the disasters which are
caused directly by human actions. There are some other
activities 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. It is a
common exerience that human-made disasters have
increased both in their numbers and magnitudes over
the years and concerted efforts are on at various levels
to prevent and minimise their occurrences.
Establishment of National Institute of Disaster
Management, India, Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, 1993 and the World Conference on Disaster
Management in May 1994 at Yokohama, Japan, etc.
are some of the concerete steps towards this direction
initiated at different levels.
Consequently, now human beings tend to intensify
their activities into disaster prone areas increasing their
vulnerability to disasters. Colonisation of flood plains of
most ofthe rivers and development of large cities and
port-towns like – Mumbai and Chennai along the coast,
and touching the shore due to high land values, make
them vulnerable to the occurrence of cyclones, hurricanes
and tsunamis.