Natural Calamities

Natural calamities are the calamities which are inflicted by God,

or Nature, on man and his world. At these calamities, the unseen
hand wreaks havoc in the part of the world it chooses to act upon.
On these natural activities of nature no scientific or technological
developments can wield any control. They can occur as and when
and where nature ordains it.
Natural calamities can be of many different kinds, but the similarity
in all, is their massive destruction in the area of their occurrence.
The natural disasters are of many kinds, they are drought and
famine, flood, earthquake, hailstorm and a cyclone. In the wake
of all these, in one sweep there is complete devastation and
destruction, due to which normal life comes to a standstill.
Loss of life is well nigh complete, and belongings of people get
lost, blown away or swept away. The scene is one of awe, of
some unknown power that appears to wreak some revenge
on the people of the area. One feels that, there will never
again be life in the area, there will never again come up
any construction in the area. But, nature plays its part in this
also,and even after the most ghastly disasters, life has come
up blooming as ever as before in areas of such devastation.
A very touching scene is of a drought effected area. In any
country that depends on the annual rainfall for its source of
water, if there is no rain, for the water supply, the obvious famine
comes in its wake. This condition of getting no rain is called
drought, and with it, as its automatic corollary comes famine.
For with the scarcity of water there is no vegetation and food
scarcity follows. The crops get burnt up with heat, the earth gets
parched for water, and all life seems to be cracking in the heat.
Just the opposite condition occurs when there is a flood. A
flood is another from of a natural calamity. On the one hand,
we find men dying due to want of water while on the other, in
flood we see them marooned by huge expanses of water. High
rise buildings start as if floating in water, men, livestock, and
materials get an opportunity of floating, swimming and even
drowing. If this flood is accompanied with a storm then there
is no panacea for the sufferers. With the impact of the strong
breeze, trees get uprooted and there appears no hope for the
survival of life.
Regarding an earthquake, Oh God, the earth cracks and creeps
with the huge solid face of the earth moving light as light as a
cradle, moving in a loving soft breeze. However, this cradle of
love is no less than a destruction of the highest magnitude, and
causes massive destruction as of the other calamities. The earth
appears to be crying under the weight of civilization and
breaking and cracking in places with an unwarranted speed.
The result of this swing like action of the earth is, the occurrence
of cracks big and small in different places and, the falling of
huge high rise buildings, felling of trees and complete
annihilation of life and materials.
A hailstorm and a cyclone also result in absolute disaster and
breakdown of lige. The latest of such tragedies has been a
cyclone in the Gujarat state of India. Trees have been blown
off their very roots, and houses and huge buildings have been
as if dug out of their very foundation, and all life has been
destroyed or dislocated.
As far as India is concerned, I feel that, nature has been
very kind on the one hand and very cruel yes very cruel
on the other. I say this because, not one year goes when
there has been no natural disaster. However, when such
 calamities do occur in India, the entire Indian machinery,
Governmental or non-government does fear up to provide
succour to the disturbed area. The Government sanctions
crores of rupees for the rehabilitation of the people in the
area, food and medicines are air dropped and the entire country
feels and acts together. However, it is a matter of thought that,
even after 50 years of self rule, the Government has not been
able to take any concrete steps to avert such natural disasters.
For example in Assam every year there is a flood in the River
Brahmaputra and then the machinery is geared up to take the
people out of the trouble, but, no success has been achieved in
averting the disaster.
It is to be thought of why we have not been able to avert the
calamities which are annual. For if know of a calamity that is
to come, we should be able to save ourselves from it. At this
juncture, let us analyse why and how these calamities have
remained unchecked even when we are so deep into civilization
and development. The obvious reasons to my mind are two one
that, we are not able to, and second, we are not sufficiently
interested in removing the hazard. I feel the Indian scenario is
a combination of the two causes. We are not able to check them
and also we are not as serious as we should be in trying to
prevent these tragedies. For example in Assam, as just mentioned,
every year without fail, there are floods. Though there has been
instituted a Brahhmaputra Board that has done some work to
clean the river, and increase the stretch of the river bed, the
floods come non-stop. This proves another point that, man
has no power over the will of nature. Though to-day man
thinks that he can do everything and nature is now irrelevant,
yet, all his efforts to counter the pangs of nature fall flat and fail.
The repeated disasters that befall on earth are a continuous
reminder to man that there is always a hand that can undo
all that man does. For if this was not true, man would b
ruling like a monarch on earth without a fear but, as we all
know, this is not so. Nature plays its game off and on and
gives pin pricks to this self styled monarch to remind him
of his drawbacks and disabilities, and keep him in a balanced
state of mind.