essay on indian natural disasters

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Natural Disasters Essay

Natural disasters are not in the control of human beings. Like many other countries, India is also plagued with many natural disasters because of its geographical location and environment. In the past few decades, the temperature in the Indian subcontinent has risen. A natural calamity is called a disaster when it affects people or property on a large scale. Here are a few sample essays on the topic ‘Natural Disasters’.

100 Words Essay On Natural Disasters

Humans have been subjected to the impact of natural disasters for as long as they have been on Earth. Disasters, unfortunately, are happening all the time. Most of the Natural Disasters we see are caused by natural forces. Therefore, they are almost impossible to prevent from happening. Natural disasters like floods, drought, landslides, earthquakes, and cyclones frequently occur all throughout the world. Often, natural disasters leave mass effects and it can take years to control the damage. However, the negative effects and damages caused by these natural disasters can be reduced significantly if proper warning systems or policies are used.

200 Words Essay On Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are mostly naturally occurring events that greatly damage human lives and assets. Every year, many lives are lost due to natural disasters across the globe. Many people are left with no home or property. They suffer endlessly. Some natural disasters are floods, landslides, cyclones, hurricanes, drought, wildfires. This problem becomes far more severe when a natural disaster occurs in a densely populated place. Unfortunately, most natural disasters are unpreventable from happening. We can only forecast these events and take necessary measures to mitigate the loss.

India is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters because of its unique geological position. Every year India witnesses nearly five cyclones of various intensities. Droughts in summer and mild to strong earthquakes are frequently experienced in many northern parts of India near the Himalayas. In India, wildfires are caused in the forest area during the autumn and summer seasons. Our country is also witnessing dramatic climate changes and massive global warming due to pollution and greenhouse gases. Due to this, natural disasters are becoming more frequent than before.

Coping Up With Natural Disasters

Most natural disasters are out of our control and can occur randomly. All we can do, however, is take necessary precautions as soon as we are able to predict when the disaster is going to take place. Global Warming is an important reason for all these things. Therefore, we must protect and preserve our natural environment. It is essential to warn people of upcoming disasters. A mandatory evacuation should be carried out if necessary. After the disaster, people should be provided financial help to recover from damages and losses from the disaster.

500 Words Essay On Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are events that occur due to either biological activity or human-made activity. Human lives and property are affected for a long time after it occurs. The number of cases is increasing worldwide every day. It is because of the over-exploitation of natural resources by mankind. India suffers significantly from natural disasters due to its vulnerable geographical location. Due to this, our country still needs a proper disaster management unit.

Types Of Natural Disasters

Different kinds of Natural Disasters in India occur very often and have major effects on people’s lives.

Earthquake | An earthquake is a natural event when the Earth's tectonic plates suddenly shift and cause the ground to shake. This shaking can damage buildings and other structures, as well as loss of life. Earthquakes can happen at any time and can strike without warning, making them a frightening and unpredictable phenomenon.

Cyclone | A cyclone is a type of storm characterised by a low-pressure centre and strong winds that spiral inward and upward. Cyclones are also typhoons or hurricanes, depending on the region in which they occur. Cyclones form over warm ocean waters and typically move toward land, where they can cause widespread damage and destruction. They are often accompanied by heavy rainfall and can spawn tornadoes. The destructive power of a cyclone comes from its strong winds, which can reach speeds of over 150 miles per hour. These winds can uproot trees, damage buildings, and create storm surges, large waves that can flood coastal areas.

Wildfire | A wildfire is a large, uncontrolled fire that occurs in a natural habitat, such as a forest, grassland, or prairie. Wildfires can happen due to various factors, including lightning, human activity, and extreme weather conditions. When a wildfire occurs, it can spread quickly, consuming everything in its path. Wildfires can have many adverse effects on the environment and people. For example, they can destroy homes and other buildings and critical infrastructures, such as roads and bridges. They can also cause air pollution and respiratory issues for people living in the area.

Human Activities And Natural Disasters

Human activities can contribute to the occurrence and severity of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and wildfires. For example, activities like deforestation, urbanisation, and climate change can increase the likelihood and impact of these events.

Deforestation, which removes vegetation from an area, can increase the risk of natural disasters. Trees and other vegetation hold the upper layer of soil in place, which prevents erosion and landslides. When these plants are removed, the ground becomes more vulnerable to being swept away by heavy rainfall or other natural forces.

Urbanisation, or the growth of cities and towns, can also contribute to natural disasters. As more and more people move into urban areas, the risk of earthquakes, wildfires, and other natural disasters increases. For example, the construction of buildings and other structures can alter the natural landscape, making it more susceptible to damage from earthquakes and other events.

Climate change, the long-term warming of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, can also increase the likelihood and severity of natural disasters. Higher temperatures can lead to more often intense heat waves, droughts, and wildfires. Rising sea levels can cause more severe flooding, particularly in coastal areas.

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• Essay On Natural Disasters

Natural Disasters Essay

500+ words essay on natural disasters.

A natural disaster is defined as an event of nature, which overwhelms local resources and threatens the function and safety of the community. Natural disasters are the consequence of natural phenomena unleashing processes that lead to physical damage and the loss of human lives and capital. Earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, windstorms, floods and droughts are some examples of natural disasters. These disasters disrupt the lives of communities and individuals and the economic activity of the affected area. Students must go through this essay on Natural Disaster and gather ideas to write effective essays on topics related to them. Practising essays on such topics will improve the writing skills of the students and help them score better in the English exam.

Classification of Natural Disasters

Natural disasters result from forces of climate and geology. These are perhaps the most “unexpected” and costly overall in terms of loss of human lives and resources.

Disasters are classified into four categories depending on how they arise:

(1) Internal Earth Processes: It covers geophysical phenomena arising from the internal processes of the earth. It includes earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions etc., which human beings cannot usually predict or prevent.

(2) External Earth Processes: These comprise phenomena such as landslides, collapses, flooding, mudslides etc. These hazards can be avoided and are often associated with man-made alterations in the environment, such as deforestation on hillsides or excavations and many more such activities.

(3) Hydrometeorological Hazards: It is associated with changes in air and ocean temperature. This hazard is responsible for the formation of weather phenomena such as hurricanes and tornadoes, and the precipitation and climate variations that sometimes cause extreme flooding, storm surges, droughts and other hydrological phenomena.

(4) Biological Hazards: Biological disasters result from the proliferation of agents such as bacteria, viruses and toxins that can kill or disable people, harm animals, and crops and damage the environment. Some examples of biological hazards are cholera, dengue, yellow fever, Ebola virus and Marburg virus. The current pandemic situation due to Coronavirus is also an example of biological hazards.

Disaster Management

Disasters have massive human and economic costs. They may cause many deaths, severe injuries, and food shortages. Most incidents of severe injuries and deaths occur during the time of impact, whereas disease outbreaks and food shortages often arise much later, depending on the nature and duration of the disaster. Anticipating the potential consequences of disasters can help determine the actions that need to be started before the disaster strikes to minimize its effects.

Disasters are the ultimate test of a community’s emergency response capability. There are 3 major steps that can be taken to manage disaster which include pre-disaster management, during-disaster management and post-disaster management. The pre-disaster management involves generating data and information about the disasters, preparing vulnerability zoning maps and spreading awareness among the people about these. Apart from these, disaster planning, preparedness and preventive measures are other steps that need to be taken in vulnerable areas.

During disasters, rescue and relief operations such as evacuation, construction of shelters and relief camps, supplying of water, food, clothing and medical aids etc. should be done on an emergency basis. Post-disaster operations involve rehabilitation and recovery of victims. It should concentrate on capacity building in order to cope with future disasters, if any. These measures have special significance to India as about two-thirds of its geographical area and an equal proportion of its population are vulnerable to disasters. The Government of India has also taken some steps for disaster management such as passing the disaster management bill and the establishment of the National Institute of Disaster Management.

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Frequently Asked Questions on Natural disasters Essay

What are the types of natural disasters.

Floods/tsunamis, wildfires, drought, hurricane/storms and earthquakes are examples for common natural disasters.

How can we control the impact of a natural disaster?

Impact of natural disasters can be mitigated to an extent by creating awareness among the public about counter measures to be taken. Governments could use disaster prediction technology and install warning systems to alert people about impending disasters. Implementing and enforcing building codes is another measure to reduce the after-effects of disasters.

How do natural disasters affect the environment?

Wildfires, floods, and tornadoes cause structural changes to our ecosystem and also damage the natural inhabitation of that area.

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• Natural Disasters Essay for Students in English

Read Natural Disaster Essay on Vedantu

The planet earth has gone through many changes over these centuries. These changes are majorly due to natural disasters happening throughout time. When we talk about natural disasters, pollution, ozone depletion and global warming are the most common scenarios we witnessed.

Growing industrialisation and exploitation of natural resources have changed the echo system bringing on the verge of imbalance. However, over these decades, humans have also introduced many disaster warning systems helping to predict natural occurrence in advance. You can read more about Natural Disasters on Vedantu.

Different Faces of Natural Disasters

Nature possesses the character of a special balance in which all living beings live together in harmony with their environment. But whenever this balance is disturbed, we see the disastrous form of nature which wreaks havoc upon this world. Natural disasters come in various forms like earthquakes, Tsunami, Storms, Cyclones, droughts etc. These disasters have always occurred throughout history but the current threat of climate change has severely increased its risks. Man has to learn that he cannot control nature and his life should revolve around the conditions present in the environment and not the other way around.

We have tried to change the basic character of the Human-Nature relationship with every metric of development being centred on financial interest and the rise of global consumerism.  This way of life promotes greed and has fundamentally made human beings disoriented towards nature. Our festivals celebrate the intrinsic relationship between humans and the environment where we celebrate Mountains, Rivers, and Animals etc. Natural disasters are a reminder that humans must never take the gift of nature for granted and always reciprocate for the resources that we have received from the environment. Clean Air, Clean Water and harmony in the ecosystem is a prerequisite for Human well being.  

How to Deal with Natural Disasters?

India, due to its unique geographical character, faces natural disasters every year which cause massive harm to lives and property. Whether it be the floods of Uttarakhand in 2013 or the landslides in Western Ghats of Kerala. The cost of our blind exploitation of natural resources without showing reverence for the delicate balance of Nature has severely harmed us and we must learn lessons from these incidents.

One of the greatest stories of the Indian government in dealing with disaster readiness has been the story of the Indian state of Odisha. Odisha is a coastal state in eastern India that regularly faces cyclones that have caused great harm to the state. To deal with the menace of these cyclones the Odisha Government made an elaborate plan by taking the local communities in confidence and have successfully reduced the number of deaths in Odisha to a very small number which used to be in thousands earlier. Other Indian states should also learn from the experience of Odisha on how to improve disaster preparedness.

Keeping our environment safe and following the right process will help in bringing down the natural disasters. It is vital to learn about them.

FAQs on Natural Disasters Essay for Students in English

1.  What are natural disasters increasing?

Over the years, natural disasters have increased. Regular earthquakes, massive flooding, cyclones, etc. have increased. According to the office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) which maintains an emergency disaster database, if a natural disaster kills 10 people, then it leaves 100 people injured. Increase in hydro-meteorological disasters, the combination of natural and man-made factors is leading to an increase in natural disasters.

2. What are the natural disasters that happened in 2020?

From wildfires in the US to locusts attack in India and back-to-back cyclones in India, there are many natural disasters in 2020. According to the Global Catastrophe Recap’s First Half of 2020 report, there were more than 207 natural disasters in just the first six months of 2020, causing \[＄\]75 billion loss globally.

3. What natural disaster is the worst?

Every natural disaster causing the loss of both property and human lives is the worst. Be it the earthquake, wildfire or cyclone; each disaster can be the worst in its sense.

4. What are the causes of natural disasters?

Natural disasters are caused by a number of reasons which may or may not be linked to Human interference. Floods, for example, occur generally because of a sudden increase in water level which cannot be supported by the natural geography of the river, however, it has been observed that floods have also occurred due to human interference like encroachment of river banks, illegal sand mining and obstructions in the natural flow of the river. 

5. What are the agencies that deal with natural disasters?

On the National level, Natural disasters are dealt with by the National Disaster Relief Force or the NDRF. The NDRF has its own commissioned force which is highly experienced and trained to deal with situations when a disaster has occurred. Apart from the NDRF, there is also the SDRF which is present in every state. The central and state governments work in coordination during Natural disasters and saving lives along with restoration of normalcy is the primary concern of the relief operations.

6. What are the ways to deal with floods and droughts?

It may sound surprising to some people but India is a unique country where due to its vast geography, we have seen conditions where some parts of the country are facing floods while other parts suffer from drought in the same year. These are especially tough to deal with as the volume of water in floods just cannot be stored and once a region is facing drought, access to water becomes a question of survival. Linking rivers is a very grand scheme which can solve some of our problems but this also needs to be dealt with caution.

7. What can I do to contribute to disaster relief programmes?

The central and state governments carry out various programmes which are directly related to disaster relief work, coordinating with the agencies and donating to these relief operations are some things that we can do as citizens. There are various NGOs that provide relief material to people who are suffering from natural disasters. Creating awareness about such an important issue is also an essential activity. You can learn more about it on Vedantu website and download it in PDF format.

8. Which regions are the most affected by natural disasters in India?

Every part of the country has a unique geographical character and in some way or the other, they face the threat of natural disasters. Bihar and Assam are two such states which face floods on an annual basis, The Himalayan states have a very delicate ecology and save the menace of flash floods and landslides. Maharashtra has a problem of flooding in the Western Ghats while Vidarbha faces drought. Innovative ways must be discovered by states to deal with natural disasters.

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• 13 December 2023

The climate disaster strikes: what the data say

• Shannon Hall 0

Shannon Hall is a freelance science journalist in Colorado.

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Floods similar to this one at Gurugram in August are becoming more common in India. Credit: Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty

India is facing a harsh new reality. In Kerala, near the southern tip of the subcontinent, floods frequently inundate farmlands and pour into households. In the sea off Mumbai, fewer fish are caught owing to an increase in cyclones and heavier rainfall. Farther north in Rajasthan, cattle farmers face rising temperatures and water shortages. In the northern state of Uttarakhand, forest fires are more frequent today than in the past. And in Satabhaya, a coastal village off the Bay of Bengal, rising sea levels and coastal erosion have forced hundreds of families to leave. All these problems have, of course, been exacerbated by climate change.

Since the pre-industrial period, India’s rising temperature has caused the Himalayan glaciers to retreat, droughts to worsen, flash floods and landslides to increase and cyclones to intensify across the country’s 7,500-kilometre-long coastline. These events are now occurring on a regular basis (see ‘India’s extreme weather events’). In the first nine months of 2022, for example, India had an extreme weather event nearly every single day. “It can be a year-long swaying of the climate sledgehammer,” says Raghu Murtugudde, a climate researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. “We now have disasters in pretty much every season.”

Source: Centre for Science and Environment

Worrying change

In 2020, India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences published the first climate-change assessment report for the country 1 . It was based on data from 1901 to 2018 and showed that the country’s average temperature in that period had risen by roughly 0.7 °C, bringing with it extreme weather patterns.

March 2022, for example, was the hottest March on the subcontinent since records began in 1901, with temperatures of more than 40 °C combined with a drought as rainfall slowed to about one-third of normal rates. The two placed enormous stress on agriculture, with some regions experiencing a 30% reduction in their harvests, forcing the country to restrict its wheat exports. The increased demand on the electricity grid, partly caused by the increased use of air-conditioning units, caused the worst electricity shortage in more than six years. At least two states, Tripura in the northeast and West Bengal in the east, ordered schools to close. The extreme temperatures led to the deaths of at least 90 people. “It really shocked the country,” says Chandni Singh, who works on climate-change adaptation at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, a national education institution based in Bengaluru.

Nature Spotlight: India

Heatwaves often have cascading effects on other hazards, leading to wildfires that destroy crops and release dangerous smoke, as well as accelerating the spread of infectious diseases and causing death. They can also lead to water shortages. Warmer air can hold more moisture, leading to lengthy dry periods before all that moisture gets dumped in a matter of days or even hours.

The 2020 assessment 1 shows that the total seasonal rainfall had dropped, but when it does rain, it pours, causing floods and landslides. In July this year, for example, torrential rain tore across northern India, causing landslides and flash floods, killing at least 22 people. And in August, heavy monsoon rains triggered landslides in India’s Himalayan region, leaving nearly 50 people dead.

Events such as these have become the new normal. A climate assessment report published in November 2022 by the Centre for Science and Environment, a public-interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi, analysed the first nine months of 2022. It found that India experienced extreme weather events, ranging from heatwaves to cyclones, for 88% of that time period 2 . These disasters claimed 2,755 lives, affected 1.8 million hectares of crops, destroyed around 400,000 homes and killed almost 70,000 livestock.

“This is the watermark of climate change,” the report states 2 . “It is not about the single event but about the increased frequency of the events — an extreme event we saw once every 100 years has now begun to occur every five years or less. Worse, it is now all coming together — each month is breaking a new record. This in turn is breaking the backs of the poorest who are worst impacted and are fast losing their capacities to cope with these repeated and frequent events.”

Vulnerability

Part of the problem is that India is positioned between the melting Himalayas and three rapidly warming bodies of water. The Arabian Sea warmed by 2 °C from 1982 to 2019, pumping moisture into northwest India. But the mountains squeeze the moisture from these damp winds as if they were a sponge, dumping rain and causing floods and landslides. The temperature of the sea now hovers at around 28 °C, which is warm enough for cyclones to form. A 2021 study shows that there has been a 50% increase in the number of cyclones in the past 40 years from the Arabian Sea 3 .

There is “one extreme weather event after another — whether it’s the monsoon or the tropical cyclones”, says Roxy Mathew Koll, an oceanographer at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune.

To make matters worse, those cyclones now intensify rapidly, strengthening to dangerous storms in a matter of hours. Cyclone Amphan, for example, which caused widespread damage in eastern India in May 2020, initially had wind speeds of 140 kilometres per hour but quickly strengthened to 215 kilometres per hour, switching from a category 1 cyclone to a category 4 cyclone in less than a day. “We go to sleep thinking that it’s a big cyclone and by the time we wake up, our roofs are gone,” Koll says. “There is no time to respond.”

Women in Maharashtra state draw water from a well that is almost empty. Credit: Ritesh Shukla/Getty

It is clear that India’s unique locale places it at the mercy of climate change, but Singh points out that it is societal and economic factors that leave the Indian population with little protection. For example, in a heatwave, someone who can remain indoors with a cooling system is much less exposed than is a street vendor who needs to work outside — but fewer than 10% of Indians own air-conditioning. Furthermore, India’s booming population will place further demand on food and water, and the sheer number of people living in vulnerable areas (particularly in coastal regions) will rise, meaning climate change will take an even greater toll.

Mumbai is particularly vulnerable, Koll says. It is already one of the most populous cities in the world and its population is likely to double to around 40 million by 2050. By that time, climate projections suggest a global temperature increase of 2 °C, causing worse monsoons, cyclones, storm surges, heatwaves and increased humidity in the city. “The impact at that time is unimaginable, even for climate scientists like me,” he says.

Managing the fallout

The 2020 assessment 1 projected that the average temperature in India will increase by 4.4 °C by the end of the century. That will cause summer heatwaves to be 3–4 times more common and twice as long. A study by the Climate Impact Lab at the Tata Centre for Development, University of Chicago, predicts that there will be one million deaths a year from extreme heat in India by the end of the century if greenhouse emissions continue at their current level 4 .

This means India needs to adapt to climate change. “We are headed to a very, very warm and hot world,” says Karthik Ganesan, a fellow at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a non-profit policy-research institution in New Delhi. “India’s effort must go towards figuring out solutions and managing the fallout of climate change.”

In 2008, the Indian government launched the National Action Plan for Climate Change in an effort to do just that. The country has since poured money into hundreds of different adaptation schemes, from more-efficient irrigation systems to early-warning systems. The latter are crucial. If the government knows a cyclone is coming, for example, it can arrange an evacuation that can save lives. Before a drought, farmers can plan their irrigation effectively. And hospitals will have time to prepare for an influx of patients before a heatwave.

Some of these adaptation schemes have already made an impact. In 2013, Ahmedabad, a city north of Mumbai in western India, implemented the first heat action plan across India and south Asia. After a six-day heatwave in 2010 that reached 46.8 °C and caused an extra 1,344 deaths (a 43.1% jump above the baseline death rate), the plan’s main goal was to alert the populations most at risk. But it also alerted government agencies, health officials, emergency responders, local community groups and media outlets. And it provided training to health-care professionals to help them prevent and manage heat-related cases. A later study estimated that 2,380 deaths were avoided in the two years after the plan was put into action 5 . Today, 30 similar plans are in place across the country.

Heat action plans are not the only success story. In 1999, the Odisha cyclone, which hit the east coast south of Kolkata, peaked with winds of 260 kilometres per hour and killed nearly 10,000 people (although some estimates suggest there were as many as 30,000 fatalities). With the help of improved forecasts today, cyclones of similar intensity kill dozens of people, not thousands, Koll says.

The study that analysed the first nine months of 2022 also found that fatalities from cyclones are increasingly rare 2 . Cyclones that devastated nearly 100,000 hectares of land resulted in only two deaths. “This is because of the laudable work” done by the India Meteorological Department in cyclone forecasting, so “there is adequate warning to governments”, the report states.

Despite these advancements, Singh argues that many of the adaptation schemes are insufficient, mainly because the country is so large with so many different hazards. It also struggles to think holistically about many of these issues, she says. For example, Indian farmers have started using drought-resilient seed, but the government has not reformed the agrarian system as a whole. This means that farmers will simply run into other problems down the line, such as a lack of refrigerated trucks to ensure that the produce reaches the consumer in a decent condition.

Singh says more fundamental change is needed. “We cannot be thinking of endlessly adapting to heatwaves or endlessly raising houses on stilts. We need to make deep changes in how we run the world.”

India has invested in solar and wind power . It has committed to the Paris agreement to reduce its carbon intensity. And it has increased forest regeneration. These steps should help to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, although it needs other countries to take similar steps as well. As Singh says: “This is just a horrific trailer of what’s to come.”

Nature 624 , S26-S28 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03910-w

This article is part of Nature Spotlight: India , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

Krishnan, R. et al. (eds) Assessment of Climate Change Over the Indian Region (Springer, 2020).

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Pandey, K. & Sengupta, R. Climate India 2022: An Assessment of Extreme Weather Events (Centre for Science and Environment, 2022).

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Disaster risk reduction, india is among the world’s most disaster-prone countries with 27 of its 29 states and seven union territories exposed to recurrent natural hazards such as cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, floods and droughts..

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Child centered risk informed preparedness for a resilient India

India is among the world’s most disaster-prone countries with 27 of its 29 states and seven union territories exposed to recurrent natural hazards such as cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, floods and droughts. Climate change and environmental degradation have further compounded the frequency and intensity of disasters along with increasing the vulnerability of key assets including people. In addition, almost one third of the country is also affected by civil strife.

A reality that is often overlooked in programme development and policy making is that children are the most at-risk from the impact of natural disasters and conflicts.

In five major natural disasters from 2000-2016 some 17,671 children lost their lives. The 2015-2016 drought in ten states affected an estimated 330 million people, including 37 million children under age five.

Many aspects of children’s lives are affected adversely including, but not limited to dropping out of school due to schools being used for other purposes such as shelters during natural disasters, missing immunization due to disruption of health services and the non-availability of nutritious food, clean water and sanitation facilities leading to malnourishment and diseases. In addition during disasters there are also increased incidences of violence, exploitation and abuse as well as child marriage, trafficking and child labour.

Considering the frequency of recurrent floods, droughts, severe weather or conflict in different locations across India, development results for women and children, particularly from marginalized communities, are adversely impacted or compromised.                      

The solution

UNICEF conducts and maintains an updated risk analysis of the shocks and stresses on children’s well-being and their communities, focusing on the underlying causes such as low capacity of service providers and vulnerability of communities. This evidence informs the government and its partners on the necessity to invest more in risk informed programming to strengthen the resilience of children and reduce disruptions in delivery of services, thereby minimizing the impact of disasters.

UNICEF has set out disaster-risk reduction, climate change and social cohesion as priorities to be addressed in its Country Programme for 2018-22. 

Areas of focus are strengthening the capacities of state disaster management governance systems and institutions and building community capacities, including children, to lead disaster risk reduction. We integrate risk reduction strategies into the education, health, nutrition and water and sanitation sectors to build resilience. Our risk analysis is child centered to ensure that they include the impact of natural and man-made hazards and conflict on children’s well-being and their communities. UNICEF also supports the design of comprehensive school safety programmes to reduce the risks faced by children in schools.

The emphasis is on strengthening the capacities of state disaster risk management governance systems and institutions at all levels, and supporting them to implement child-centred, risk informed programming plans and strategies. UNICEF’s risk reduction strategies focus on strengthening public health systems; improving water security and overall flood and drought preparedness; expanding child friendly spaces; improving readiness to support social sector recovery; comprehensive school safety and security; and supply chain management for relief operations. In addition, UNICEF focuses on Community based disaster risk management programmes involving children and adolescents that support resilience initiatives in urban and rural settings. UNICEF also pays special attention to the protection needs of children in humanitarian situations such as civil strife.     

Our programmes empower children and adolescents to assess and understand their risks with scientific temper and take actions to build resilience. Children in their role as agents of change and future leaders are encouraged to further apply the risk knowledge and skills to build the resilience of the local community.                          

Systematic preparedness in advance of crises has demonstrated significant return on investment. UNICEF undertakes risk-informed programming to strengthen systems that support children and their families to anticipate, withstand and quickly recover from shocks. UNICEF also supports government in mainstreaming child-centred disaster risk reduction. Efforts are made to improve the resilience of rural and urban communities to disaster, and to build communities’ capacity to meet challenges of climate change for the protection of children’s rights.  

Emergency preparedness and response

During emergencies and humanitarian contexts, children are especially vulnerable to disease, malnutrition and violence. Natural disasters displace numerous people to temporary shelters and leave them in dire need of life-saving multi-sectoral assistance.  Disasters and emergencies destroy or damage critical social infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and water and sanitation systems across large areas, creating an environment in which disease spreads rapidly and care and education is being disrupted.

Emergency preparedness and response mechanisms enable an effective emergency response to humanitarian crisis, considering national capacities and UNICEF's comparative advantage. UNICEF continues to strengthen its ability to deliver on its Core Commitments for Children and support Government requests on emergency preparedness. 

Strategic partnerships

The National Disaster Management Authority under the Ministry of Home Affairs is UNICEF’s main government counterpart. Other strategic partners include the National Institute for Disaster Management, urban local bodies, think tanks, civil society organizations, sectoral training institutions and other United Nations agencies and development organizations. Child-centred NGOs working on disaster risk reduction continue to be key partners for community and capacity building activities. The media, especially radio, also plays a key role.

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Learning from Deaths in Disasters: The Case of Odisha, India

Nibedita S Ray-Bennett

Over the last 25 years, the world has seen a rise in the frequency of natural disasters in rich and poor countries alike. Today, there are more people at risk from natural hazards than ever before, with those in developing countries particularly at risk. T his essay series is intended to explore measures that have been taken, and could be taken, in order to improve responses to the threat or occurrence of natural disasters in the MENA and Indo-Pacific regions. Read  more ...  

Odisha (renamed from Orissa in 2011) is one of the eastern states in the Indian union . According to the 2011 census the population of Odisha was at about 41 million, which makes it the 11th most populated state in India. [1] Odisha has 30 districts, [2] of which 13 are coastal. The coastal districts are highly prone to cyclones, floods, droughts, and heat waves due to geographic location. Its coastline adjoins the Bay of Bengal for 300 miles, which makes it four to five times more likely to experience storms than it would if it were located in the Arabian Sea. Tropical cyclones from the Bay of Bengal bring severe and widespread destruction, especially when accompanied by storm surges, high winds, and extreme rainfall that results in riverine flooding. [3]

On October 29-30, 1999, Odisha was hit by a cyclone affecting all coastal districts. The Indian Meteorological Department called it a ‘super cyclone’ due to its high wind velocity of 170-185 miles per hour; its unprecedented storm surge, which was 16-23 feet high; and the torrential rainfall over 48 hours, which caused devastating floods in the major river basins. The intensity of the cyclone killed more than 10,000 people, [4] caused severe economic devastation, and activated the Orissa Relief Code (the then sole disaster policy document for the state). It also put Odisha in the spotlight internationally because the super cyclone coincided with the tail end of the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (I.D.N.D.R.). [5]

Fourteen years after the super cyclone, on October 12, 2013, Odisha was hit by Cyclone Phailin, which was accompanied by a storm surge of 5 feet and heavy rainfall that caused extensive floods in the major river basins. According to the National Institute of Disaster Management, 45 people were reported killed (44 in Odisha and 1 in Andhra Pradesh). [6] This begs the question as to what the Government of Odisha did that contributed to the relatively low death toll. We have provided some answers in this article based on three months of fieldwork and seven interviews with senior officials.

Compared to the super cyclone of 1999, Phailin was less intense in three aspects. The wind velocity of the super cyclone reached 185 miles per hour, compared to 160 miles per hour in Phailin. [7] Second, the storm surge reached 11 feet in the coastal regions, according to United Nations Environment Programme, compared to 20 feet during the super cyclone. [8] Third, a 24-hour precipitation total of 6.5 inches was recorded on October 13, 2013, whereas a 24-hour precipitation total of about 20.5 inches was recorded at the weather station of Paradip on October 30, 1999. [9] Although the anatomy of these two tropical cyclones differed, they are comparable on two grounds: first, they tested the disaster management systems of Odisha to their limits. Second, they presented a window of opportunity to assess the strengths and limitations of the disaster management system built by the government and nongovernment organizations, at the interface with technology between 1999 and 2013.

Why Were There More Than 10,000 Deaths in the Super Cyclone?

We argue that the high death toll in 1999 was due to lack of coordination, communication, and complacent worldviews that existed in the disaster management system. Coordination problems arise when ‘core information’ is unavailable for Category 1 and 2 responders to develop an effective response system. Core information is the most valuable information both to avoid unnecessary deaths and to increase the efficacy of a disaster response system. This information is generated by meteorologists and meteorological offices using early warning systems. The unavailability of this core information will 'blind' a response system. [10]

 According to the director of the Indian Meteorological Department in Odisha, coordination of core information failed because:

Prior to 1999 there was no coordination between the government departments. The technology was underdeveloped. We had to rely on New Delhi and Kolkata for weather forecasts over telephone. There was delay in receiving weather warnings. [11]

According to Harriman, [12] the Indian Meteorological Department was able to generate early warnings for the super cyclone only two days prior, compared to four days prior in the case of Phailin. The delay in generating core information affected the decision making processes of local responders. Decision making is a crucial component of coordination in uncertain situations. Leadership is also a critical component of decision-making. [13] Critics blamed the then chief minister of the state, Mr. Giridhar Gamang, for his weak leadership. He was unable to rise to the situation as a leader of the state, to generate an objective of saving lives for his government and his bureaucrats. The consequence of this was unnecessary human deaths.

In addition, the communication systems—both in terms of generating and disseminating an effective early warning—were underdeveloped. The failure of the coordination system was described as “lack of [a] plan and planning” by the district emergency officer of Ganjam, and “no coordination” whatsoever by the director of the Indian Meteorological Department. [14] This lack of coordination was hindered further because “there was no authority to monitor relief and rescue” operations from Bhubaneswar [15] according to the district emergency officer of Ganjam. Lack of coordination was also acknowledged as a major failure during the super cyclone, by the deputy relief commissioner of the Special Relief Organisation. [16]

The coordination suffered further, due to a culture of complacency, which was rife in 1999—both at home and abroad. It was only in the midterm evaluation of the I.D.N.D.R. in 1994 in Yokohama, Japan that the international community began to grasp the deleterious effect of disasters on the developing world. [17]  Proactive disaster management, even at the international level, was in its early stages.

During the super cyclone, this unpreparedness manifested through a reactive response system, inadequate measures for evacuation, and a lack of imagination among the district-level responders. A culture of complacency was also rife among the at-risk population, which did not heed the early warnings due to a fatalistic mind-set, which hindered evacuation. [18] The evacuation process was further hindered by a lack of shelters. In 1999 there were only 75 cyclone shelters on the entire coastline. [19] These shelters, which were built by the Red Cross Society, saved thousands of lives. The culture of complacency was fueled further by a “lack of experiencing” a devastating cyclone prior to 1999. [20] So, neither the responding actors nor the at-risk population imagined that a hazard of low-probability but of such great impact could affect Odisha coastal areas. Together, these factors contributed to a disaster management system that was disjointed, ill-prepared, and as a consequence, was unable to save lives during the super cyclone.

How Were Deaths Prevented in Cyclone Phailin?

Jagatsinghpur's district emergency officer described the period between 1999 and 2013 as an “inter-disaster period . ” During this period, the Government of Odisha developed a new disaster management system which had two notable features. [21] First, there was increased interaction between the national and state governments, Indian Meteorological Department, nongovernmental organizations, and the at-risk communities. Second, this new disaster management system interfaced with technology. In doing so, the government was able to rectify the issues of coordination failure, communication failure, and the conservative world views evident in 1999 super cyclone.

In the aftermath of the super cyclone, the capacity of the Indian Meteorological Department was enhanced by space technology, the Meteo France International synergy system and a high-power computing system in order to help with predictions. [22] Furthermore, in 2007 the Government of India passed the first Disaster Management Act, which among other things, created a knowledge network that included the Indian Meteorological Department, Earth System Science Observation, the Indianan Space Research Organisation, Central Water Commission, Geological Survey of India, and National Remote Sensing Centre. [23] This network was crucial in generating core information during Phailin, which was effectively communicated to the at-risk population. [24] Information and communication tools such as media, mobile text messaging, hotlines and VSat—to name just a few—were fully exploited to disseminate the core information to the at-risk population.

The generation of accurate core information prior to Phailin’s landfall was instrumental in developing an effective response system. It helped guide primary responders’ actions. As a result, responders were able to evacuate 1.2 million people from 18 districts. [25] This evacuation is considered as one of the largest emergency operations ever undertaken in India. [26] An operation of this scale was only possible because of the coordination between actors, the availability of core information, effective evacuation planning, flexibility in the standard operating procedures, and responders' dedication and commitment to save lives.

Leadership is central to promoting an effective response system as well as counteracting complacent world views. Mr. Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha, provided much-needed leadership in the aftermath of the super cyclone. From 2000 onwards, he commemorated October 29 as Disaster Preparedness Day for Odisha. This created a culture of disaster preparedness. He also concentrated much of his effort in building the state's infrastructure—one that is essential to supporting a disaster response system. Thanks to funds made available by the World Bank and the central government, Patnaik was able to build roads, bridges, concrete houses, and multipurpose cyclone shelters. [27] Good road conditions as well as their connectivity with cyclone shelters facilitated the evacuation process during Phailin. [28]

During Cyclone Phailin, Patnaik also exhibited the traits of a strategic leader by declared "saving precious lives" to be “a goal” [29]  for all actors involved in mitigating the effect of the storm. This goal was communicated to the district and village level responders. This led to a dramatic reduction in deaths.

What Can We Learn From the Case of Odisha?

Several lessons can be generalized from the case of Odisha. Three in particular are mentioned here. First, deaths in disasters can be reduced even by poor nation-states when the disaster management system is aligned skillfully. Here, the generation of accurate core information as well as effective coordination and communication of this information with the relevant actors to develop an effective response system is crucial. In this light, the modern disaster management system is conceived as a system that works in interface with humans and technology. As such, policy makers and U.N. bodies should invest both in technology and capacity development in order to promote effective coordination and communication. This system should also work closely with early warning systems rather than in isolation.

Second, the case of Odisha illustrates the increasing role and involvement of political leadership before, during, and after a disaster. When there is proactive political leadership, a disaster response system can be aligned with the goal of saving lives. Political leadership can promote a culture of disaster preparedness, too. In the case of Phailin, the chief minister set as a goal “saving lives at any cost.” [30]  Accordingly, all actors and responders organized themselves to achieve this target. In this light, the United Nations and other international funding organizations could do a great deal by encouraging political leadership to implement ‘priorities for action’ for effective disaster management.

Third, reducing deaths in disasters is of paramount importance, and indicates how robust the system is. This ethos is now reflected in the first global target of the United Nations’s Sendai Framework for Action (2015-2030), [31] which urges reducing “global disaster mortality by 2030.” The case of Odisha suggests that setting an objective of reducing deaths and promoting a socio-technical disaster management system—and a culture of disaster preparedness—are vital ingredients for achieving the first global target of the Sendai Framework.

[1] Population Census 2011, Census Organization of India, “Orissa Population Census Data 2011,” accessed January 5, 2016, http://www.census2011.co.in/census/state/orissa.html .

[2] “Indian states comprise a three-tier administrative structure. Several gram sansad (villages) or wards (hamlets) constitute a gram panchayat (GP), several GPs constitute a panchayat samiti (PS) or block, and several PSs constitute a zilla parishad or a district.” See Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett, Caste, Class and Gender in Multiple Disasters: The Experiences of Women-Headed Households in an Oriya Village (Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag, 2009), 12.

[3] Government of Odisha, Managing Disasters in Orissa: Background, Challenges and Perspectives (Bhubaneswar: Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority, 2002).

[4] The World Bank, “Cyclone Devastation Averted: India Weathers Phailin,” October 17, 2013, accessed April 27, 2016, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/10/17/india-cyclone-phail… .

[5] The U.N. General Assembly, in December 1987, declared the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.

[6] National Institute of Disaster Management, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, India Disaster Report 2013, accessed April 27, 2016, http://nidm.gov.in/PDF/pubs/India%20Disaster%20Report%202013.pdf , 41.

[7] S. Haeseler, “Super cyclone Phailin across India in October 2013,” Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) (2013), accessed April 5, 2016, https://www.dwd.de/EN/ourservices/specialevents/storms/20131018_phailin_indien_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3 .

[8] L. Harriman, “Cyclone Phailin in India: Early warning and timely actions saves lives,” UNEP Global Environmental Alert Services (GEAS) (2013), accessed May 20, 2015, http://na.unep.net/geas/archive/pdfs/GEAS_Feb2013_DustStorm.pdf .

[9] Haeseler, “Super-Cyclone Phailin.”  

[10] Louise K. Comfort, Kilkon Ko, and Adam Zagorecki, “Coordination in rapidly evolving disaster response systems: The role of information,” American Behavioural Scientist , 48 (2004): 295-313.

[11] Summarized from author’s field diary, meeting held in Bhubaneswar on July 21, 2014, Indian Meteorology Office.

[12] Harriman, “Cyclone Phailin.”

[13] Peter Senge, “The leader’s new work: Building learning organizations,” Sloan Management Review 32 (1990): 7-23.

[14] Harriman, “Cyclone Phailin.”

[15] Bhubaneswar is the capital of Odisha.

[16] Harriman, “Cyclone Phailin.”

[17] Elaine Enarson, “Through women’s eyes: A gender research agenda for disaster social science,” Disasters 22 (1998): 157-73.

[18] Kishor C. Samal, Shibalal Meher, and Nilkantha Panigrahi, Beyond Relief Disaster Mitigation, Livelihood Rehabilitation and the Post-Cyclone Recovery in Orissa: Village Level Studies in Three Most Cyclone Affected Districts in Orissa (Bhubaneswar: Nabo Krishna Centre for Development Studies Publication, 2003).

[19] Harriman, “Cyclone Phailin.”

[20] Samal et al., Beyond Relief.

[21] Government of Odisha, Procedures/guidelines for maintenance of records relating to the relief operations on account of natural calamities (No. 768/SR), (Bhubaneswar: Office of the Special Relief Commissioner, 2012), accessed June 2, 2015, http://www.odisha.gov.in/disaster/src/Procedure_Guidelines/Maintenance_NC.pdf .

[22] Bibhuti Barik, “Met Office goes digital,” The Telegraph , February 18, 2014; and interview with the Director of Indian Meteorology Department in Bhubaneswar, July 22, 2014.

[23] Sanjay K. Srivastava, “Making a technological choice for disaster management and poverty alleviation,” Disasters 33 (2009): 58-81.

[24] Interview with the Director of Indian Meteorology Department in Bhubaneswar, July 21-22, 2014.

[25] B.N. Mishra, “Tryst with Phailin: The deadliest cyclone in 2013,” The Response 13 (2013): 5-7.

[26] “Disaster Update: Cyclone Phailin,” Disaster Recovery Journal , October 16, 2013, accessed April 27, 2016, http://www.drj.com/industry/industry-hot-news/disaster-update-cyclone-p… .

[27] State Programme Officer of U.N.D.P., interview by author, Bhubaneswar, July 23, 2014.

[28] Deputy Relief Commissioner interview by author, Bhubaneswar, July 23, 2014..

[29] Gwilym Meirion Jenkins, “The systems approach,” Journal of Systems Engineering 1 (1969): 3-49.

[30] District Emergency Officer of Puri, interview with author, Puri, July 31, 2014.

[31] The Sendai Framework is the successor of the Hyogo Framework. It is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement approved by the 185 U.N. Member States in the Third U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held from March 14 to 18, 2015 in Sendai, Japan. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) resolution, “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030,” March 18, 2015, accessed June 25, 2015, http://www.preventionweb.net/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf .

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-for-profit, educational organization. It does not engage in advocacy and its scholars’ opinions are their own. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains sole editorial control over its work and its publications reflect only the authors’ views. For a listing of MEI donors, please click her e .

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This seminar paper narrates the dearth of 1895-97 in British Bundelkhand region and analyse the difference between estimation and realities.

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The analysis of the socioeconomic effects of, and societal adaptation to, extreme climatic events in the past is an important tool in preparing for future adaptation. However, the history of social responses to climate is relatively understudied, and analyses that do exist take a broadly historical perspective, detached from current vulnerability, adaptation or resilience theory. This analysis attempts to address this empirical scarcity through an examination of drought responses in early-nineteenth century western India, particularly at the government level. The analysis reveals a sociopolitical system that was highly robust in the face of climate stress, despite high levels of vulnerability at the individual level, with hegemonic structures maintained by a system of grain dealer/moneylenders. The period witnessed a move towards market-driven drought response, which apparently reduced adaptive capacity in the short term by allowing speculation in the grain market. This is likely to have been buffered in the medium term by increases in cultivation, greater market openness and the almost universal acceptance of market-driven drought policy by government actors, resulting in a swift response. However, the apparent success of adaptation measures during the first half of the nineteenth century may have masked vulnerabilities to more extreme climatic events, contributing to the catastrophic Indian famines of the late nineteenth century. This bears similarities to the ‘catastrophe hypothesis’, the significance of which is discussed. The study argues for a greater focus on social responses to extreme climatic events in the past in order to address contemporary challenges.

Routledge Handbook of the History of Colonialism in South Asia

Maria Framke

Rachel Berger

This essay surveys a broad landscape of studies that take up the preparation, imbibing, and distribution of food in significant ways, focusing on the way in which the field of food studies in South Asia is cohering in recent scholarship. It begins with histories of the imperial period that frame food around imperial encounter and then move on to studies that address the crises of food through famine and their political aftermath. It then turns to the postcolonial, globalized context of making food Indian in a large‐scale market and concludes with thoughts on where food studies and food cultures are headed. Ultimately, food is determined to have symbolic and pragmatic meaning as an icon of national presence in the greater world, a tool for assessing social relations, a measure of taste and values, a challenge for the political and environmental systems of a geo‐economic space. As eating in India has taken on new political dimensions that have arisen from the synchronous rise of both neoliberal practices of political economy and the rise of Hindu fascism, the anxieties articulated through the cultures of food at work in the region are revealed.

Irish University Review

Sourit Bhattacharya

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the colonies controlled by the British, the Dutch, and other European countries witnessed a number of devastating famines. These famines did not solely arise for the ‘natural’ reasons of the shortage of rainfall or food availability problems, but were aggravated by the systemic imperialist exploitation of the world by these major European powers. Taking as its case study the two great famines in Ireland and India – the 1845–52 Irish Famine and the 1943–44 Bengal Famine – the essay offers a reading of Liam O'Flaherty's Famine (1937) and Bhabani Bhattacharya's So Many Hungers! (1947). It shows that these works – apart from registering the devastating impact of the famines on the colonial population – have pointed through their powerful uses of content, form, and style to the world-historical reasons of long-term agrarian crisis, political instability, tyranny of the landlord classes, inefficiency of the British Empire, and others as responsible for the famines.

The Historical Journal

Aditya Ramesh

The nineteenth century witnessed a major expansion in the construction of public works including canals, roads, and railways across the British empire. The question that colonial governments faced during the nineteenth century was on how to finance public works. Focusing specifically on irrigation works and the rivers of southern India, this article shows how different experiments were attempted, including raising capital and labour from local communities as well as corporate investment in irrigation works through London capital markets. The article argues that by the latter part of the nineteenth century, a definitive answer had emerged, i.e. irrigation projects on rivers would be financed through state debt. An enormous body of scholarship in Britain and India debated the relationship between public works and public debt. This article rethinks this scholarship as a technological and environmental history. The article argues that colonial modes of raising capital were dependent on ...

Puneet Yadav

While India's Economic Development after 1947 was indeed conditioned by the ideology of the freedom movement and by concomitant changes taking place in the rest of the world, following Bipan Chandra, Colonial legacy and Heritage of the Raj days played a determining role in how our economic policies and their outcomes were shaped after Independence. This paper presents an overview of Colonial policies and data pertaining to Literacy and Education, Health-care, Urbanization, Agricultural Infrastructure and Industrial Labour; comparing and contrasting the same with India's contemporary reality. The focus is on population and employment trends, attempting to grasp the roots of India's Occupational-stagnancy and employment-crisis in the post-Independence period.

Kritika. Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History

Alexander Morrison

A review of Aidan Forth 'Barbed Wire Imperialism. Britain's Empire of Camps 1876-1903'' and Clare Anderson 'A Global History of Convicts and Penal Colonies'. Published in Kritika 20/2 (Spring 2019): 390–403

International Journal of Disaster Risk Science

Akhtar Alam

Disaster scenarios are constructed by integrating natural hazard phenomena and social science sources of information. We profiled 51 natural hazard events of nineteenth century Kashmir that provide insights into the impacts of varying degree of severity that spread through the socioeconomic and political systems, influenced adaptation, and increased the consequences of the resulting disasters. The root cause of these disasters was embedded in the social, natural, and political economic systems of their time, where vulnerabilities overlapped and interacted periodically with successive colonial regimes and acted as tipping points. The combined effect of successive colonial regimes, inept administration, rigid political economy, and natural hazards made the situation go from bad to worse and reduced Kashmir to the depths of distress and subjugation. Over the arc of the nineteenth century, a series of disasters led the Kashmiri population to learn how to live with disasters and minimize...

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Essay: On natural disasters and climate writing

All the romanticisation with unseasonal rains shouldn’t make us forget that climate change wreaks havoc through heatwaves, forest fires, floods and flash rains.

“On the afternoon of 17 March 1978, the weather took an odd turn in north Delhi… that day dark clouds appeared suddenly and there were squalls of rain. Then followed an even bigger surprise: a hailstorm”. In his book The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable , celebrated author and Jnanpith award winner, Amitav Ghosh writes about an afternoon in Delhi when the capital was hit by a hailstorm. The event took the nation by surprise — glass panes were shattered, and unsuspecting people were severely wounded by shards of hail. The headlines of a newspaper on 19 March read, “A Very, Very Rare Phenomenon, Says Met Office: It was a tornado that hit northern parts of the Capital yesterday — the first of its kind…”

Climate Emergency In South Asia

Decades after 1978, Delhiites are accustomed to unseasonal rainfall and sudden hailstorms. In the first 11 days of July 2023 alone, rainfall in Delhi crossed 300mm, the highest since July 2003 when the capital recorded 632.2 mm of rainfall. Besides this, Delhi also witnessed floods—a first since 1978, with the Yamuna crossing the 208-meter mark (the danger mark is 205.33 meters). Besides this, unseasonal rains have caused flash floods and landslides across Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Chandigarh with over 100 fatalities.

A damning reality that none of us can afford to look away from, climate change is overshadowed by aesthetic reels on the monsoon and “rainy day reading lists” which flood social media timelines. Climate crusaders who criticise the romanticisation of rains are often branded as killjoys — until tragedy hits home and climate change is no longer a nagging activist but a monster waiting to devour life on earth in various forms — heatwave, forest fire, floods and flash rains.

Climate Change And Surrealism

In her novel Latitudes of Longing (HarperCollins, 2018) author Shubhangi Swarup weaves a tale of interconnected lives separated by time and space. The story is set in different ecosystems across South Asia — the Andaman Islands, the fault lines of Myanmar, a valley in Kathmandu and a Tibetan snow desert. In the novel, Girija Prasad, a scientist and conservationist, swims in the clear waters of the Andamans. Girija searches for answers to questions related to the Andamans — questions like why a particular type of tree fossil, which is only found in Madagascar and Central Asia, is also found in the Archipelago.

Miles away, a young man named Plato is incarcerated in a Burmese prison. Plato searches for his mother who he hasn’t seen in 23 years. Further away in Kathmandu, Bebo, an exotic dancer, longs for a life where she doesn’t have to worry about hunger. Next is the Tibetan snow desert where Apo, a Hamlet, wants to marry Ghazala, a Kashmiri woman he loves.

“Literature Is Not Crisis Management”

At its core, Latitudes of Longing uses magical realism to show how humans long for something they don’t have. Girija longs for answers to his scientific questions; Plato for motherly affection; Bebo for a fulfilling life and Apo for love. The planet, much like humans, longs for change with each changing latitude; as is seen with the diverse landscape and topographies in the novel. But what happens when this change manifests as climate change?

Swarup says that through her book, Latitudes of Longing , she wants to “bring about a larger appreciation of the planet”. She adds, “If you are not in love with the earth, then you needn’t fight for climate change. It needn’t be a fear-based discourse. If you don’t know the name of the tree you see outside your window, how can you claim to be climate conscious?” Swarup’s observations ring true in a world where rapid urbanization and consumerism seem to have reduced love for nature.

A 2019 study by the Outdoor Foundation showed that people are spending less time outdoors, thus widening their disconnect with nature. “Literature is not crisis management,” Swarup says. “A genre alone cannot save our species. A full-fledged discipline cannot do it either”.

Impact of Climate Change on Wildlife

Neha Sinha is a conservation biologist whose book Wild and Wilful (HarperCollins India, 2021), offers a window into the existence of 15 Indian species in dire need of conservation. A chapter is dedicated to each of the species, which requires acceptance of humans for what they are, not enslavement for what we want them to be. So far, the discourse on climate change has neglected its devastating impact on wildlife. When it comes to climate fiction, Sinha feels it is about time we found another protagonist in the story. “For too long, humans have been protagonists in climate fiction stories. We must find non-human protagonists. Perhaps the forests, rivers and climate itself can be a protagonist”.

Tribal Narratives In Climate Fiction

Sinha feels non-human protagonists can help democratize how the impact of climate change is assessed. “A hierarchy exists not just between humans and wildlife but even within humans where some voices are given more importance than others. I feel there is a need for tribal and indigenous voices which are often left out of climate and literary discourse”, she says. Braiding Sweetgrass (Milkweed Editions, 2013) by Robin Wall Kimmerer, is one such book which uses indigenous wisdom to explore the relationship between humans and Mother Earth, thereby countering mainstream scientific methodologies.

“A tribal would know far better how to live with nature than someone who dwells in urban cities,” says Sinha. One tribal voice integral to environment writing in India is Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, whose book The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories (Speaking Tiger Books, 2015) addresses the social and ecological damage caused by coal mining in Jharkhand. Most of the characters belong to the Santhal community. Shekhar addresses the position of women in a patriarchal society, poverty, tribal life and sex work, among other issues. For Sinha, climate writing is inherently a political act. “Climate writing can dismantle power structures and address issues in the world. We ought to decolonize the discourse and ensure equal representation of voices in the genre”.

Climate Change And Classicism In Nature

Sinha’s author bio on Amazon says she loves animals “especially, ugly animals”. It is therefore not surprising that she addresses discrimination in the natural world, where a particular species is accorded a higher status and importance than others.

“The tigers are seen as the brand ambassadors of the conservation movement. If tigers are protected, it is often assumed that conservation efforts are successful. We often pick things that appeal to us and that may not always be fair. Nature created us equal”. She elaborates that a tiger makes it to many wildlife safari photographs. “Just because something doesn’t appeal to us, doesn’t mean it needn’t exist. For instance, a snake doesn’t appeal to humans but it still has the right to exist,” she says.

Discrimination, needless to say, can also affect how the impact of climate change is assessed on certain species as opposed to others. Swarup echoes Sinha’s views on certain species being given more importance than others. “The whole ecosystem has to survive for humans to survive”, Swarup says. “We have to look at the interconnectedness of species for us to live in harmony”.

Can Climate Writing Move The Needle?

Can novels change the way we look at the climate crisis? “We don’t need a new genre to highlight [climate change]. We needn’t pigeonhole climate writing into a box. All writing should be climate conscious,” says Swarup. One can argue that humans tend to have a myopic view of the climate crisis where any ecological imbalance is taken seriously only when it affects humans directly. The moment tragedy strikes, humans are quick to spring into a knee-jerk reaction — planting trees, going for short-term solutions rather than holistically looking at climate change.

Mitigating Climate Change With Love

Swarup feels it is imperative for us to love Earth and its vast bounty to fight the climate crisis. “You needn’t go to the Himalayas for this. You can go on a walk and look at the species of flora and fauna in your neighbourhood — learn the names of the birds and plants you see. When you realize your Amazon package might contribute to the extinction of that bird you see or the flamingos you watch on the beach, you’ll become climate conscious. If you have never seen a sea slug or a crab on a beach, you wouldn’t care if it was embroiled in a polythene bag”

Statistics show that Swarup’s observations might be true. A United Nations Development report shows a direct link between a person’s awareness and their desire for climate action. There was very high recognition of the climate emergency among those who had attended university or college in all countries, from lower-income countries such as Bhutan (82%) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (82%), to wealthy countries like France (87%) and Japan (82%). Swarup strongly believes that if we love something and appreciate its existence, we will work towards saving it.

Teaching Climate Change to Children

Given the unawareness around climate change, it is imperative to teach young children about climate crises from a young age. Bijal Vachharajani is the author of four children’s books including A Cloud Called Bhura (Talking Club, 2019) and So You Want to Know About the Environment (Rupa Publications India, 2017). A Cloud Called Bhura is a story about four friends Amni, Tammy, Mithil and Andrew who wake up one morning to find the sky taken over by a massive brown cloud called Bhura. No one has a clue where this cloud has come from and what it is made up of.

A Cloud Called Bhura familiarizes kids with climate change not by inducing fear but through intriguing stories that are light-hearted, which sparks curiosity in kids but also deliver the message to kids in a responsible manner. In an interview to ParentCircle, Bijal said “We are at a time in the history of the planet, when children are demanding a better future for themselves, and it’s crucial they understand about the climate emergency as it impacts them the most – their present and the future”.

Deepansh Duggal writes on art and culture. He tweets at Deepansh75.

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Looking back at the natural disasters that took place in India in 2021

• Between 1970 to 2019, weather, climate and water hazards accounted for 50% of all disasters, 45% of all reported deaths and 74% of all reported economic losses, according to World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
• According to the World Economic Forum, disaster events have been recorded in the past 20 years, which have claimed the lives of 1.23 million people.
• A flashback at the natural disasters that hit different parts of India this year.

Tamil Nadu floods

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted heavy rainfall in parts of Tamil Nadu, and it came true from November 1. The flooding was caused by extremely heavy downpours, killing at least 41 people.

Several red alerts were issued for many areas in Tamil Nadu, including Cuddalore, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Karaikal, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu, Viluppuram, and Tiruvannamalai for November 10-11. Over 11,000 were displaced due to the incessant rainfall.

Maharashtra floods

Starting on 22 July, Maharashtra saw heavy rainfall in many of its western districts and recorded the highest rainfall in the month of July in 40 years.

Around 251 people died and over 100 were missing due to floods and landslides in Maharashtra.

Its neighbouring state Goa also witnessed the worst floods in decades.

Kerala floods

Between October 12 and 20, after heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, cutting off towns and villages, 42 people died and 217 houses were destroyed. Out of the 42 people who lost their lives in the floods, five were children.

Kottayam and Idukki were two of the worst affected districts in the state, where days of heavy rainfall had caused deadly landslides.

Cyclone Tauktae

It was a powerful, deadly and damaging tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea that became the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in the Indian state of Gujarat since the 1998 Gujarat cyclone and one of the strongest tropical cyclones to ever affect the west coast of India.

Started on May 14, the storm displaced over 200,000 people in Gujarat and killed 174 people with 80 people still missing.

Tauktae brought heavy rainfall and flash floods to areas along the coast of Kerala and Lakshadweep. There were reports of heavy rain in the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra as well.

Cyclone Yaas

It was a relatively strong and very damaging tropical cyclone that made landfall in Odisha and brought significant impact to West Bengal in May. Yaas formed from a tropical disturbance that the Indian Meteorological Department first monitored on May 23.

Around 20 people across India and Bangladesh died due to the cyclone and West Bengal was one of the most impacted states in India due to Yaas, with a loss of approximately $2.76 billion, according to several media reports.

Cyclone Gulab

The third storm in India that impacted eastern India, was formed on September 24 in Bay of Bengal. On September 26, Gulab made landfall in India's Andhra Pradesh, but weakened over land. The storm overall brought heavy rains and strong winds throughout India and the Middle East, killing at least 39 people.

Over 30,000 individuals were evacuated into safety as a result of the cyclone. This number further increased to 46,075 people as the storm further moved inland.

Assam earthquake

On April 28, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake jolted Assam. The quake resulted in two fatalities and at least 12 people were injured. The quake struck at a depth of 34 kilometres and 140 kilometres north of Guwahati.

The earthquake occurred as a result of oblique-slip faulting at a shallow depth just at the foothills of the Himalayas. Analysis by India's National Centre for Seismology revealed that the earthquake involved a slip along the Kopili Fault, near the Main Frontal Thrust.

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Disaster Management Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on disaster management.

Nature has various manifestations both gentle as well as aggressive. We see how sometimes it is so calm while the other times it becomes fierce. The calm side is loved by everyone, of course, however, when the ferocious side is shown, devastation happens. As humans cannot control everything, certain things of nature are out of our control.

Similarly, when natural disasters happen, humans cannot control them. However, we can prevent them. In other words, whenever a calamitous situation arises that may disturb the life and ecosystem, we need emergency measures to save and preserve lives. As natural disaster are not predictable, they can take place anywhere at any time. To understand disaster management thoroughly, we need to first identify the types of disasters.

Types of Disasters

If we look at the disasters that have taken place earlier, we can easily say that nature is not merely responsible for them to happen. They happen due to other reasons too. This is why we have classified them in different categories. First comes the natural disasters which are caused by natural processes. They are the most dangerous disaster to happen which causes loss of life and damage to the earth. Some of the deadliest natural disasters are earthquakes , floods, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and more.

As no country is spared from any kind of disasters, India also falls in the same category. In fact, the geographical location of India makes it a very disaster-prone country. Each year, India faces a number of disasters like floods, earthquakes, tsunami, landslides, cyclones, droughts and more. When we look at the man-made disasters, India suffered the Bhopal Gas Tragedy as well as the plague in Gujarat. To stop these incidents from happening again, we need to strengthen our disaster management techniques to prevent destructive damage.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Disaster Management

Disaster management refers to the efficient management of resources and responsibilities that will help in lessening the impact of the disaster. It involves a well-planned plan of action so we can make effective efforts to reduce the dangers caused by the disaster to a minimum.

Most importantly, one must understand that disaster management does not necessarily eliminate the threat completely but it decreases the impact of the disaster. It focuses on formulating specific plans to do so. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in India is responsible for monitoring the disasters of the country. This organization runs a number of programs to mitigate the risks and increase the responsiveness.

Proper disaster management can be done when we make the citizens aware of the precautionary measures to take when they face emergency situations. For instance, everyone must know we should hide under a bed or table whenever there is an earthquake. Thus, the NDMA needs to take more organized efforts to decrease the damage that disasters are causing. If all the citizens learn the basic ways to save themselves and if the government takes more responsive measures, we can surely save a lot of life and vegetation.

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Natural Disasters

Where and from which disasters do people die? What can we do to prevent deaths from natural disasters?

By Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado

This page was first published in December 2022 and last revised in January 2024.

Natural disasters – from earthquakes and floods to storms and droughts – affect millions of people every year. However, we are not defenseless against them, and the global death toll, especially from droughts and floods, has been reduced.

While natural disasters account for a small fraction of all deaths globally , they can have a large impact, especially on vulnerable populations in low-to-middle-income countries with insufficient infrastructure to protect and respond effectively​. Understanding the frequency, intensity, and impact of natural disasters is crucial if we want to be better prepared and protect people’s lives and livelihoods.

On this page, you will find our complete collection of data, charts, and research on natural disasters and their human and economic costs.

See all charts on Natural Disasters ↓

Other research and writing on Natural Disasters on Our World in Data:

• Not all deaths are equal: How many deaths make a natural disaster newsworthy?

Natural disasters data explorer

Natural disasters kill tens of thousands each year.

The number of deaths from natural disasters can be highly variable from year to year; some years pass with very few deaths before a large disaster event claims many lives. On average, over the past couple of decades, natural disasters have annually resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of individuals worldwide.

In the visualizations shown here, we see the annual variability in the number and share of deaths from natural disasters in recent decades.

What we see is that in many years, the number of deaths can be very low – often less than 10,000, and accounting for as low as 0.01% of total deaths. But we also see the devastating impact of shock events: the 1983-85 famine and drought in Ethiopia; the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami ; Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar in 2008; and the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake which resulted in approximately 70% of all deaths that year in Haiti. All of these events pushed global disaster deaths to over 200,000 – more than 0.4% of deaths in these years.

Low-frequency, high-impact events such as earthquakes and tsunamis are not preventable, but such high losses of human life are. We know from historical data that the world has seen a significant reduction in disaster deaths through earlier prediction, more resilient infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and response systems. Those at low incomes are often the most vulnerable to disaster events: improving living standards, infrastructure, and response systems in these regions will be key to preventing deaths from natural disasters in the coming decades.

Number of deaths from natural disasters

Annual deaths from natural disasters.

In the visualization shown here, we see the long-term global trend in natural disaster deaths. This shows the estimated annual number of deaths from disasters from 1900 onwards from the EM-DAT International Disaster Database . 1

What we see is that in the early-to-mid 20th century, the annual death toll from disasters was high, often reaching over one million per year. In recent decades we have seen a substantial decline in deaths. Even in peak years with high-impact events, the death toll has not exceeded 500,000 since the mid-1960s.

This decline is even more impressive when we consider the rate of population growth over this period. When we correct for population – showing this data in terms of death rates (measured per 100,000 people) – we see an even greater decline over the past century. This chart can be viewed here .

The annual number of deaths from natural disasters is also available by country since 1990. This can be explored in the interactive map.

Average number of deaths by decade

In the chart, we show global deaths from natural disasters since 1900, but rather than reporting annual deaths, we show the annual average by decade.

As we see, over the course of the 20th century there was a significant decline in global deaths from natural disasters. In the early 1900s, the annual average was often in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 deaths. In the second half of the century and into the early 2000s, we have seen a significant decline to less than 100,000 – at least five times lower than these peaks. This decline is even more impressive when we consider the rate of population growth over this period. When we correct for population – showing this data in terms of death rates (measured per 100,000 people) – then we see a more than 10-fold decline over the past century. This chart can be viewed here .

Number of deaths by type of natural disaster

With almost minute-by-minute updates on what’s happening in the world, we are constantly reminded of the latest disaster. These stories are, of course, important but they do not give us a sense of how the toll of disasters has changed over time.

For most of us, it is hard to know whether any given year was a particularly deadly one in the context of previous years.

To understand the devastating toll of disasters today, and in the past, we have built a Natural Disasters Data Explorer which provides estimates of fatalities, displacement, and economic damage for every country since 1900. This is based on data sourced from EM-DAT; a project that undertakes the important work of building these incredibly detailed histories of disasters. 2

In this visualization, I give a sense of how the global picture has evolved over the last century. It shows the estimated annual death toll – from all disasters at the top, followed by a breakdown by type. The size of the bubble represents the total death toll for that year.

I’ve labeled most of the years with the largest death tolls. This usually provokes the follow-up question: “Why? What event happened?”. So I’ve also noted large-scale events that contributed to the majority – but not necessarily all – of the deaths in that year.

For example, the estimated global death toll from storms in 2008 was approximately 141,000. 138,366 of these deaths occurred in Cyclone Margis, which struck Myanmar and is labeled on the chart.

What we see is that in the 20th century, it was common to have years where the death toll was in the millions. This was usually the result of major droughts or floods. Often these would lead to famines. We look at the long history of famines here .

Improved food security, resilience to other disasters, and better national and international responses mean that the world has not experienced death tolls of this scale in many decades. Famines today are usually driven by civil war and political unrest.

In most years, the death toll from disasters is now in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 people. In the most fatal years – which tend to be those with major earthquakes or cyclones – this can reach tens to hundreds of thousands.

This trend does not mean that disasters have become less frequent, or less intense. It means the world today is much better at preventing deaths from disasters than in the past. This will become increasingly important in our response and adaptation to climate change .

Injuries and displacement from disasters

Human impacts from natural disasters are not fully captured in mortality rates. Injury, homelessness, and displacement can all have a significant impact on populations.

The visualization below shows the number of people displaced internally (i.e. within a given country) from natural disasters. Note that these figures report on the basis of new cases of displaced persons: if someone is forced to flee their home from natural disasters more than once in any given year, they will be recorded only once within these statistics.

Interactive charts on the following global impacts are available using the links below:

• Injuries : The number of people injured is defined as "People suffering from physical injuries, trauma, or an illness requiring immediate medical assistance as a direct result of a disaster."
• Homelessness : The number of people homeless is defined as the "Number of people whose house is destroyed or heavily damaged and therefore need shelter after an event."
• Requiring assistance : The number of people requiring assistance is defined as "People requiring immediate assistance during a period of emergency, i.e. requiring basic survival needs such as food, water, shelter, sanitation, and immediate medical assistance."
• Total number affected : The total number of people affected is defined as "the sum of the injured, affected, and left homeless after a disaster."

Natural disasters by type

Earthquakes, earthquake events.

Earthquake events occur across the world every day. The US Geological Survey (USGS) tracks and reports global earthquakes, with (close to) real-time updates which you can find here .

However, the earthquakes that occur most frequently are often too small to cause significant damage (whether to human life or in economic terms).

In the chart below we show the long history of known earthquakes classified by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) of the NOAA as 'significant' earthquakes. Significant earthquakes are those which are large enough to cause notable damage. They must meet at least one of the following criteria: caused deaths, moderate damage ($1 million or more), a magnitude 7.5 or greater, Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) X or greater, or generated a tsunami.

Available data — which you can explore in the chart below — extends back to 2150 BC. But we should be aware that the most recent records will be much more complete than our long-run historical estimates. An increase in the number of recorded earthquakes doesn't necessarily mean this was the true trend over time. By clicking on a country in the map below, you can view its full series of known significant earthquakes.

Deaths from earthquakes

Alongside estimates of the number of earthquake events, the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) of the NOAA also publishes estimates of the number of deaths over this long-term series. In the chart below we see the estimated mortality numbers extending back to 1500.

These figures can be found for specific countries using the "change country" function in the bottom-left of the chart, or by selecting the "map" on the bottom right.

At the global level, we see that earthquake deaths have been a persistent human risk through time.

What were the world's deadliest earthquakes?

The number of people dying in natural disasters is lower today than it was in the past, and the world has become more resilient.

Earthquakes, however, can still claim a large number of lives. Whilst historically floods, droughts, and epidemics dominated disaster deaths , a high annual death toll now often results from a major earthquake and possibly a tsunami caused by them. Since 2000, the two peak years in annual death tolls (reaching 100s of thousands) were 2004 and 2010. Both events (the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami of 2004, and the Port-au-Prince earthquake in 2010) are in the deadliest earthquake rankings below.

What have been the most deadly earthquakes in human history? In the visualization, we have mapped the top 10 rankings of known earthquakes which resulted in the largest number of deaths. 3 This ranking is based on mortality estimates from the NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). 4

Clicking on the visualization will open it in higher resolution. This ranking is also summarized in table form.

The most deadly earthquake in history was in Shaanxi, China in 1556. It's estimated to have killed 830,000 people. This is more than twice that of the second most fatal: the recent Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti in 2010. It's reported that 316,000 people died as a result. 5

Two very recent earthquakes — the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami of 2004, and the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake — feature amongst the most deadly in human history. But equally, some of the most fatal occurred in the very distant past. Making the top three was the earthquake in Antakya (Turkey) in the year 115. Both old and very recent features are near the top of the list. The deadly nature of earthquakes has been a persistent threat throughout our history.

Number of significant volcanic eruptions

There are a large number of volcanoes across the world that are volcanically active but display little or only very low-level activity. In the map, we see the number of significant volcanic eruptions that occur in each country in a given year. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6 or larger, caused a tsunami, or was associated with a major earthquake. 6

Estimates of volcanic eruptions are available dating back as early as 1750 BCE, however, the data completeness for long historic events will be much lower than in the recent past.

Deaths from volcanic eruptions

In the visualization, we see the number of deaths from significant volcanic eruptions across the world. Using the timeline on the map we can see the frequency of volcanic activity deaths over time. If we look at deaths over the past century we see several high-impact events: the Nevado del Ruiz eruption in Colombia in 1985; the Mount Pelée eruption in Martinique in 1902; and the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia.

This visualization – sourced from the NASA Socioeconomic Data And Applications Center (SEDAC) – shows the distribution of mortality risk from landslides across the world. As we would expect, the risks of landslides are much greater close to highly mountainous regions with dense neighboring populations. This makes the mortality risk highest across the Andes region in South America, and the Himalayas across Asia.

Famines & Droughts

We cover the history of Famines in detail in our dedicated entry here . For this research, we assembled a global dataset on famines dating back to the 1860s.

In the visualization shown here, we see trends in drought severity in the United States. Given is the annual data of drought severity, plus the 9-year average. This is measured by the Palmer Drought Severity Index: the average moisture conditions observed between 1931 and 1990 at a given location are given an index value of zero. A positive value means conditions are wetter than average, while a negative value is drier than average. A value between -2 and -3 indicates moderate drought, -3 to -4 is severe drought, and -4 or below indicates extreme drought.

Hurricanes, Tornados, and Cyclones

Long-term trends in deaths from us weather events.

Trends in the US provide some of the most complete data on impacts and deaths from weather events over time. This chart shows death rates from lightning and other weather events in the United States over time. Death rates are given as the number of deaths per million individuals. Over this period, we see that on average each has seen a significant decline in death rates. This is primarily the result of improved infrastructure and predicted and response systems to disaster events.

Intensity of North Atlantic Hurricanes

A key metric for assessing hurricane severity is their intensity and the power they carry. The visualizations here use two metrics to define this: the accumulated cyclone energy (ACE), an index that measures the activity of a cyclone season; and the power dissipation index of cyclones.

Extreme precipitation and flooding

Precipitation anomalies.

In the visualization shown, we see the global precipitation anomaly each year; trends in the US-specific anomaly can be found here .

This precipitation anomaly is measured relative to the century average from 1901 to 2000. Positive values indicate a wetter year than normal; negative values indicate a drier year.

Also shown is US-specific data on the share of land area that experiences unusually high precipitation in any given year.

Precipitation extremes

We can look at precipitation anomalies over the course of the year, however, flooding events are often caused by intense rainfall over much shorter periods. Flooding events tend to occur when there is extremely high rainfall for hours or days.

The visualization here shows the extent of extreme one-day precipitation in the US. What we see is a general upward trend in the extent of extreme rainfall in recent decades.

Extreme Temperature (Heat & Cold)

Extreme temperature risks to human health and mortality can result from exposure to extreme heat and cold.

Heatwaves and high temperatures

In the visualizations shown here, we see long-term data on heatwaves and unusually high temperatures in the United States.

Overall we see there is significant year-to-year variability in the extent of heatwave events. What stands out over the past century of data was the 1936 North American heatwave – one of the most extreme heat wave events in modern history, which coincided with the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

When we look at the trajectory of unusually high summer temperatures over time (defined as 'unusually high' in the context of historical records) we see an upward trend in recent decades.

Cold temperatures

Whilst we often focus on the heatwaves and warm temperatures in relation to weather extremes, extremely low temperatures can often have a high toll on human health and mortality. In the visualization here we show trends in the share of US land area experiencing unusually low winter temperatures. In recent years there appears to have been a declining trend in the extent of the US experiencing particularly cold winters.

US Wildfires

How are the frequency and extent of wildfires in the United States changing over time?

In the charts below we provide three overviews: the number of wildfires, the total acres burned, and the average acres burned per wildfire. This data is shown from 1983 onwards when comparable data recording began.

Over the past 30-35 years we notice three general trends in the charts below (although there is significant year-to-year variability):

• on average, the annual number of wildfires has not changed much;
• on average, the total acres burned has increased from the 1980s and 1990s into the 21st century;
• The combination of these two factors suggests that the average number of acres burned per wildfire has increased.

There has been significant media coverage of the long-run statistics of US wildfires reported by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). The original statistics are available back to the year 1926. When we look at this long-term series it suggests there has been a significant decline in acres burned over the past century. However, the NIFC explicitly states:

Prior to 1983, sources of these figures were not known, or could not be confirmed, and were not derived from the current situation reporting process. As a result, the figures prior to 1983 should not be compared to later data.

Representatives from the NIFC have again confirmed (see the Carbon Brief's coverage here ) that these historic statistics are not comparable to those since 1983. The lack of reliable methods of measurement and reporting means some historical statistics may in fact be double or triple-counted in national statistics.

This means we cannot compare the recent data below with old, historic records. But it also doesn't confirm that acres burned today are higher than in the first half of the 20th century. Historically, fires were an often-used method of clearing land for agriculture, for example. It's not implausible to expect that wildfires of the past may have been larger than today but the available data is not reliable enough to confirm this.

Long-term trends in US lightning strikes

This chart shows the declining death rate due to lightning strikes in the US. In the first decade of the 20th century, the average annual rate of deaths was 4.5 per million people in the US. In the first 15 years of the 21st century, the death rate had declined to an average of 0.12 deaths per million. This is a 37-fold reduction in the likelihood of being killed by lightning in the US.

Lightning strikes across the world

The map here shows the distribution of lightning strikes across the world. This is given as the lightning strike density – the average number of strikes per square kilometer each year. In particular, we see the high frequency of strikes across the Equatorial regions, especially across central Africa.

Economic costs

Global disaster costs.

Natural disasters not only have devastating impacts in terms of the loss of human life but can also cause severe destruction with economic costs. When we look at global economic costs over time in absolute terms we tend to see rising costs. But, importantly, the world – and most countries – have also gotten richer . Global gross domestic product has increased more than four-fold since 1970. We might therefore expect that for any given disaster, the absolute economic costs could be higher than in the past.

A more appropriate metric to compare economic costs over time is to look at them in relation to GDP. This is the indicator adopted by all countries as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to monitor progress on resilience to disaster costs.

In the chart, we see global direct disaster losses given as a share of GDP.

Disaster costs by country

Since economic losses from disasters in relation to GDP is the indicator adopted by all countries within the UN Sustainable Development Goals, this data is also now reported for each country.

The map shows direct disaster costs for each country as a share of its GDP. Here we see large variations by country. This data can be found in absolute terms here .

Link between poverty and deaths from natural disasters

One of the major successes over the past century has been the dramatic decline in global deaths from natural disasters – this is despite the fact that the human population has increased rapidly over this period.

Behind this improvement has been the improvement in living standards; access to and development of resilient infrastructure; and effective response systems. These factors have been driven by an increase in incomes across the world.

What remains true today is that populations in low-income countries – those where a large percentage of the population still lives in extreme poverty or score low on the Human Development Index – are more vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters.

We see this effect in the visualization shown. This chart shows the death rates from natural disasters – the number of deaths per 100,000 population – of countries grouped by their socio-demographic index (SDI). SDI is a metric of development, where low SDI denotes countries with low standards of living.

What we see is that the large spikes in death rates occur almost exclusively for countries with a low or low-middle SDI. Highly developed countries are much more resilient to disaster events and therefore have a consistently low death rate from natural disasters.

Note that this does not mean low-income countries have high death tolls from disasters year-to-year: the data here shows that in most years they also have very low death rates. But when low-frequency, high-impact events do occur they are particularly vulnerable to its effects.

Overall development, poverty alleviation, and knowledge-sharing of how to increase resilience to natural disasters will therefore be key to reducing the toll of disasters in the decades to come.

Definitions & Metrics

Hurricanes, cyclones & typhoons.

There are multiple terms used to describe extreme weather events: hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, and tornadoes. What is the difference between these terms, and how are they defined?

The terms  hurricane ,  cyclone, and  typhoon all refer to the same thing; they can be used interchangeably. Hurricanes and typhoons are both described as the weather phenomenon 'tropical cyclone'. A tropical cyclone is a weather event that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and results in a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms. Its circulation patterns should be closed and low-level.

The choice of terminology is location-specific and depends on where the storm originates. The term  hurricane is used to describe a tropical cyclone that originates in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific. When it originates in the Northwest Pacific, we call it a typhoon . In the South Pacific and Indian Ocean the general term  tropical cyclone  is used.

In other words, the only difference between a hurricane and a typhoon is where it occurs.

When does a storm become a hurricane?

The characteristics of a hurricane are described in detail on the NASA website .

A hurricane evolves from a tropical disturbance or storm based on a threshold of wind speed.

A tropical disturbance arises over warm ocean waters. It can grow into a tropical depression which is an area of rotating thunderstorms with winds up to 62 kilometers (38 miles) per hour. From there, a depression evolves into a tropical storm if its wind speed reaches 63 km/hr (39 mph).

Finally, a hurricane is formed when a tropical storm reaches a wind speed of 119 km/hr (74 mph).

Difference between hurricanes and tornadoes

But, hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones  are distinctly different from tornadoes.

Whilst hurricanes and tornadoes have a characteristic circulatory wind pattern, they are very different weather systems. The main difference between the systems is scale (tornadoes are small-scale circulatory systems; hurricanes are large-scale). These differences are highlighted in the table below:

Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)

The intensity or size of volcanic eruptions is most commonly defined by a metric termed the 'volcanic explosivity index (VEI)'. The VEI is derived based on the erupted mass or deposit of an eruption. The scale for VEI was outlined by Newhall & Self (1982) but is now commonly adopted in geophysical reporting. 7

The table below provides a summary (from the NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center ) of the characteristics of eruptions of different VEI values. A 'Significant Volcanic Eruption' is often defined as an eruption with a VEI value of 6 or greater. Historic eruptions that were definitely explosive, but carry no other descriptive information are assigned a default VEI of 2.

Interactive charts on natural disasters

Data quality, number of reported disaster events.

A key issue of data quality is the consistency of even reporting over time. For long-term trends in natural disaster events, we know that reporting and recording of events today is much more advanced and complete than in the past. This can lead to significant underreporting or uncertainty of events in the distant past. In the chart here we show data on the number of reported natural disasters over time.

This change over time can be influenced by several factors, namely the increased coverage of reporting over time. The increase over time is therefore not directly reflective of the actual trend in disaster events.

Number of reported disasters by type

This same data is shown here as the number of reported disaster events by type. Again, the incompleteness of historical data can lead to significant underreporting in the past. The increase over time is therefore not directly reflective of the actual trend in disaster events.

EMDAT (2019): OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database, Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium

EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium – www.emdat.be (D. Guha-Sapir)

Since two events are ranked equally in 8th place, a total of 11 are included.

National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): Significant Earthquake Database. National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA. Available at:  https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/search .

The death toll of the Haitian earthquake is still disputed. Here we present the adopted figure by the NGDC of the NOAA (for consistency with other earthquakes); this is the figure reported by the Haitian government. Some sources suggest a lower figure of 220,000. In the latter case, this event would fall to 7th place in the above rankings.

This data is sourced from the Significant Volcanic Eruption Database is a global listing of over 500 significant eruptions.

Newhall, C.G. and Self, S (1982). The volcanic explosivity index (VEI): an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism. Jour Geophys Res (Oceans & Atmospheres) , 87:1231-1238. Available at:  https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/JC087iC02p01231 .

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Essay on Disaster Management in India for Students in English

January 5, 2021 by Sandeep

Essay on Disaster Management: Humans generally do not have any hold on the disaster in a natural calamity situation. They can do very little to avert the situation or prevent them. To preserve lives and protect them from danger, safety measures and emergency guidelines need to be implemented. These planning strategies should be ready in place before the occurrence of a natural disaster. Robust policies on disaster management could save many lives and property.

Essay on Disaster Management 500 Words in English

Below we have provided Disaster Management Essay in English, suitable for class 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.

A disaster is defined as any large scale occurrence that disrupts human society’s normal functioning and leads to widespread loss of life, property, and environment that exceeds the surviving population’s capability to cope with their resources. Every country is prone to disasters, and India is no exception to them. In general, disasters can be classified into two types, natural and human-made disasters.

While the latter can be prevented by cautious actions, the former can only be mitigated to an extent. Disaster management is the organisation and management of resources and services that deal with humanitarian aspects of emergencies caused by disasters, specifically involving the preparedness, response, and recovery to lessen the impact of disasters.

As per the estimates in the vulnerability atlas, about 60% of area is prone to earthquakes , 12% region risks flooding and 8% of the total landmass is vulnerable to cyclones. Furthermore of the 159.7 million hectares of agricultural land, 68% is prone to drought. While these are the conventional natural disasters listed, there are many more that have occurred due to wars, human negligence and civil disharmony.

Natural Disasters: These disasters occur naturally and we do not have any control over it. The most common of all the natural disasters is earthquakes. It is defined as sudden turbulent shaking of the earth. The origin of earthquake is known as the epicentre from where the shock waves traverse outwards. Earthquakes are primary disasters which combining with the environmental factors can give rise to secondary disasters like landslides, floods, fires, etc. When it occurs inside oceans, it gives rise to giant tidal waves called tsunamis.

Draughts occur due to shortage of groundwater, scarcity of rainfall and drying up of local water bodies. Draughts are the leading cause of crop failure and lead to food shortages, dehydration and malnutrition. Economically, it affects the farmers adversely as they become unemployed. This further makes them tumble into the hideous cycle of poverty, hunger and insanitation.

Man-made Disasters: These types of disasters can be easily prevented if we practice our profession and day to day activities responsibly and cautiously. On a bigger scale, political and economic factors also play a crucial role in the origin of man-made disasters.

Industrial disasters are primary type of man-made disasters. These include gas leak, chemical leak, explosions, fires, radioactive breakdown, etc. Depending upon the product or substances involved in the disaster, it can have both long and short term effects on human and ecological factors of the environment.

Another deliberately caused disaster is war and use of weapons of mass-destruction. Wars are one man’s victory and a million men’s loss. Other than loss of lives in the form of soldiers and civilians involved, wars also scar the environmental factors of the area where they are fought on.

Management and Mitigation of Disasters

Proper disaster management of natural disasters can be executed keeping in mind the following points:

• Identification of factors of a disaster
• Classification of threat levels
• Public awareness about the disasters
• Pre-emptive measures
• Preparedness to effectively combat disaster
• Well-knitted coordination of mitigation and relief organisation
• Enactment and enforcement of government and administrative policies

India is a signatory of the Hyogo Framework of Action, 2015 under the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction which prescribes the following five-fold process for mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction in a country’s socioeconomic and developmental activities-

• Political Process: This encourages effective governmental policies and institutional frameworks along with allocation of funds and resources for limiting risks of disaster.
• Technical Process: Its goal is to utilise R&D in the field of science and technology for better assessment, monitoring and identification of disaster and improve the existing early warning systems to manage disasters.
• Socio-Educational Process: This seeks to achieve mass awareness and skill development of the citizens of a country to tackle disasters effectively and ensure safety and resilience at personal level.
• Development Process: It includes integrating disaster risk reduction activities among all sectors of development planning and programs.
• Humanitarian Process: This comprises of the activities undertaken to rehabilitate loss- an integral part of risk reduction and ensure rapid response and recovery.

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Natural Disaster Essay: How to Write, Topics, & Examples

What would you do if someone told you that a tsunami would wipe out your house tomorrow afternoon? You won’t believe them. It always seems that natural disasters happen in someone else’s life. But every year, millions of people worldwide suffer from various natural calamities. This article attempts to systemize the chaos of nature for you to write an impressive natural disasters essay. You will get acquainted with the seven types of disasters, get a long list of topics and examples of natural disaster essay in 200 words and 300 words.

• 🌪️ Natural Disaster: The Basics
• 💡 114 Essay Topics
• 📑 Outlining Your Essay
• 🌊 Essay Sample (200 Words)
• 🏜️ Essay Sample (300 Words)

🌪️ Natural Disaster Essay: What Is It About?

A natural disaster is a large-scale meteorological or geological event that can to cause loss of life or massive damage to people’s property. Floods and severe storms are the most reported acts of nature in the US, but other incidents also happen from time to time. That is why you can dedicate your essay on natural disasters to earthquakes, droughts, wildfires, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, or tornadoes.

💡 114 Natural Disasters Essay Topics

What could you write in a natural disaster essay? You can invent your own topic about various types of natural disasters, their causes, and aftermath, or their impact on human life and the economy. Depending on the discipline, you can also describe historic calamities that changed the direction of human civilization. Alternatively, choose one from our comprehensive list below.

• Why are the Great Plains of the central US ideal for tornado formation?
• Global Warming and Climate Change Legislation .
• Research the atmospheric parameters inside a tornado.
• Energy, Technology and Climate Change .
• Why are the boundaries of Tornado Alley in the US so debatable?
• The global climate change as a manmade disaster.
• Which actions should you never do when a tornado is nearby?
• Volunteers’ Role During Disasters .
• Suggest your opinion on the best action strategy in a hurricane.
• The Columbia Disaster and safety violations.
• What were the causes and effects of a flood?
• Analysis on Climate Change and Global Impact .
• Describe the most devastating wildfires in the US and find their common features.
• Earthquake Engineering Considerations and Methods .
• Brainstorm ideas to prevent wildfires.
• Global warming and the greenhouse effect.
• How can building dams cause earthquakes?
• Climate Change and Its Impact on Freshwater .
• Analyze the impact of droughts on tourism .
• Climate Change Effect on Coral Reef Communities .
• Describe the most extended droughts in human history.
• Marine and Coastal Climate Change in Australia .
• Write an essay on natural disasters and earthquakes in particular.
• Air pollution and mortality rates
• What are the distinctive features of droughts in third-world countries ?
• Global Warming, Climate Change, and Society’s Impact on the Environment .
• Study the relationship between global warming and droughts.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder After a Hurricane .
• Evaluate the damage caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
• Social Media’s Role in Disaster Response .
• Classify the effects of natural disasters in an essay.
• Sustainability and Climate Change .
• Describe the 1815 volcanic eruption of Mt. Tambora, Indonesia.
• Hurricane Katrina: Overview, Impact, Response .
• Each new leap of civilization causes new responses of nature.
• Animal Exploitation. Animal Agriculture and Climate Change .
• Think of any positive effects a volcanic eruption may have.
• In Arizona, Collaboration Averts Water Disaster .
• Children are the poorest victims of any disaster.
• A Solution to Remedy Climate Change .
• Which ways of disaster risk reduction do you know?
• An Emergency Operations Center During Hurricane Harvey .
• Research the current problems in disaster management.
• Disaster Recovery Plan for Information Technology Organizations .
• Analyze ineffective disaster management in an essay about hurricane Katrina.
• Nurse Competencies and Scope of Practice in Disaster .
• What should a household have at home in the case of a disaster?
• Hurricane Katrina: The Powerful Natural Disaster .
• Describe the humanitarian disaster during the drought in Somalia.
• Technology in Disaster Preparedness .
• Can man-made disasters entail natural calamities?
• Disaster Management in Philadelphia .
• Review the criteria for disaster classification.
• Jeddah Floods and Adaptation Strategies in the City of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia .
• Search for real examples of hybrid disasters.
• Natural Disasters Prevention: A Tabletop Exercise .
• Who is responsible for casualties after a natural disaster?
• The Sand Storms: Remote Sensing and Meteorological Variables .
• List the lessons we could learn from our past disaster experience.
• Fire Development, Growth, and Spreads .
• The ice storm and silver thaw: A gentle disaster.
• Fire Crisis Management in the UAE .
• Rockslides: A pressing issue for rural areas.
• 1d – 2d Flood Modeling Using PCSWMM .
• What are the psychological benefits of disaster preparedness?
• Structural Control and Origin of Volcanism in the Taupo Volcanic Zone .
• When does a blizzard become a disaster?
• Extreme Weather Events + Geographies of Globalization .
• Research the causes of dust storms and name the affected areas.
• Strategies for Sustainable Integrated Oil Disaster Management in West Africa .
• Why did the San Francisco earthquake (1906) cause devastating fires?
• Causes of Climate Change .
• What could be done to help people who lost their homes in an earthquake?
• Book Review: Energy and Global Climate Change .
• Analyze the role of World Vision in humanitarian aid after disasters.
• Tangshan earthquake of 1976 showed that high population density is disastrous.
• The Role of Carbon Dioxide in Climate Change .
• Rock avalanche: Why water is the most powerful geological agent.
• Aspects of Climate Change .
• When do extreme weather conditions turn into a disaster?
• Climate Change: Reasons, Kyoto Protocol .
• Write an article on shelter-providing organizations for disaster victims.
• Establishing an IT Disaster Recovery Plan .
• Describe earthquake cycles in Haiti.
• Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture and Food .
• How can nature damage ecology in natural disasters?
• Climate Change. Problems. Effects .
• Disaster management should include psychological help to the survivors.
• Climate Change Causes: Position and Strategies .
• Suggest ways to prevent damage caused by debris flow.
• HAT 4: Disaster in Franklin Country .
• How did the lack of evacuation after the Bhola cyclone (1970) result in the massive death toll?
• The Effects of Climate Change .
• The most significant Yellow River flood: 2 million deaths in 1887.
• Resilience Building Against Natural Disasters in the Caribbean Islands .
• Sinkholes: A natural disaster or attraction for cavers and water-divers?
• Global Climate Change and Health .
• Describe the dynamics of landslides in California .
• Which early-warning systems to detect avalanches do you know?
• Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action .
• Pyroclastic flow: The deadliest volcanic hazard.
• Communication During Disaster Response .
• Describe the volcano eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the Herculaneum and Pompeii.
• Disaster Planning for Families .
• Disaster prevention measures: Investments that save millions of lives.
• Natural Disaster Management and Historical Prospective Study in the UAE .
• Research the PTSD in survivors of natural disasters.
• Are the latest disasters the nature’s fightback to humanity?
• Estimate the human impact on natural disasters.
• List the countries with the largest number of disasters and find their standard features.
• Everyday Communication on Climate Change .
• Insurance coverage against disasters: Our inevitable future.
• Emergency Planning Before and After Hurricane Katrina .
• One natural disaster could bring the world to its end.

Haven’t found a suitable topic in the list above? Use our essay topic generator to get more ideas.

📑 Natural Disaster Essay Outline

Outlines differ, depending on the assigned length and essay type. It is a reference sample. Feel free to modify it, extending some points and narrowing the others. Still, the overall structure should remain the same. We have chosen the “Causes of Earthquakes” essay topic for demonstrative purposes.

• Hook . There are millions of possible ways to start your essay, from a rhetorical question to any imaginable scenario. The point is to grab the reader’s attention, showing them that your writing is unique and creative. For example: We are always concerned with the consequences of a natural disaster. But what brought us into such a calamity in the first place?
• Concepts. Natural disasters can be studied in the framework of various disciplines. But in all cases, they are linked with geology, biology, chemistry, geography, and some other subjects with broad and complicated terminology. Explain the terms that could be elusive for your readers here. For example: For the purposes of this essay, an earthquake is a sudden displacement of the land surface.
• Background. How did you come to think of this problem? Why is it topical? The causes of earthquakes are numerous and often unrelated. To understand them as a system, we need a strict classification.
• Thesis statement . Clearly state the aim of your essay. This essay attempts to group the causes of earthquakes to determine which factors can be tackled by human forces.
• Transition sentence. It comes in the previous sentence (for paragraphs 2 and 3) and ensures smooth reading. E.g.: Tectonic movements are the most powerful causes of earthquakes, and we cannot influence them. But still, there is something we could do.
• Topic sentence . What will you explain in this paragraph? Human interference with nature can also cause earthquakes.
• Evidence. How can you confirm the topic sentence? Heavy clubbing of dam water can disturbance the crustal balance. Nuclear bombing causes shockwaves that penetrate the surface, changing the tectonic plates and their natural alignment. Mining can also cause earthquakes by removing extensive volumes of stone from under the ground.
• Warrant. Why does the reader need this information, and how does it relate to the thesis statement? Knowing these facts can help us change the old-fashioned approaches and lessen the ecological damage to our planet.
• Summary. Collect and summarize all your arguments here. Tectonic movements, volcano eruptions, and geological faults cause a significant part of earthquakes worldwide. But various man-made causes bring us to the same result.
• Rephrased thesis. We cannot stop the tectonic movements or hinder volcanic eruptions, but we can use natural resources with more care.

🌊 Natural Disaster Essay 200 Words

Below you will find a short natural disaster essay for 200 words. It explores the causes and effects of the tsunami in Japan in 2011.

Tsunami in Japan: Causes and Effects The proximity of the deadliest disasters is often unpredictable. As a result, the consequences of a tsunami can exceed any possible expectations. This essay looks for the decisive factors that caused the tsunami in Japan in 2011 and its results for the local population and other countries. The causes were out of human control and could not be predicted. The Pacific plate moved in the horizontal and vertical plane, advancing beneath the Eurasian Plate. It displaced the seawater above and entailed several destructive waves. The disaster had enormous consequences for the Japanese people and their economy. It killed almost 16,000 people, although the country had a sophisticated alarming system. Besides, the earthquake caused fires and explosions at oil factories. The cooling system of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant went out of service. Two people were lost, and many were injured. Nissan, like many other large corporations, had to suspend the operation of its four factories. The economic losses due to the catastrophe amounted to 300 billion dollars. But the disaster moved to other places. On 24 March 2011, the earthquake in the east of Myanmar claimed the lives of 60 people and destroyed 300 buildings. As we can see, everything is linked on our planet. Movements of the earth’ crust in any part of the world bring about earthquakes and tsunami in other countries. The series of waves in Japan was caused by the underwater earthquake and had horrible consequences.

🏜️ Natural Disaster Essay 300 Words

If your assignment is longer, you will have to provide your opinion in the essay. Or, you can make your argumentation more detailed. Below you can check our 300-word sample of a disaster essay.

The Economic Effects of the Dust Bowl Drought When someone says “a natural disaster,” we usually imagine an earthquake or a tsunami. Buildings are destroyed, and property is lost. But imagine a scenario of a devastating drought, which happened in the US in the 1930s. Its effect is less visible because it lies in the domain of the national economy. This essay reveals the economic consequences of the Dust Bowl drought. During the third decade of the XX century, strong winds raised choking dust in the southern states, from Texas to Nebraska. People and animals died as the crops failed in the area for several years in a row. The Dust Bowl lasted for almost a decade and was also called “the Dirty Thirties.” This drought intensified the impact of the Great Depression. Local farmers had to migrate to urban areas in search of better conditions and other sources of living. About 2.5 million people moved West from the worst-hit states, namely New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Kansas. But they found only discrimination, meager salaries, and inhuman working conditions. Many had to live in tents near irrigation ditches. They were called “Okies,” a disdainful name for migrants of any state. Regular rains returned to the southern states by the end of 1939, closing the drought. However, the economic aftermath persisted. The counties that suffered the most failed to recover the agricultural value of their land till the 1950s. Thus, the local population kept decreasing for twenty years. Although a drought does not ruin property, it can tangibly lower human life levels. The Dust Bowl threw people into a lose-lose situation. Their farms were unfit for gaining any profit, and the new places of living gave them no better opportunities. It took two decades to restore public wellbeing in the Southern States.

Researching the worst acts of nature can teach you to value what you have. We hope that this article has made your creative writing more manageable and pleasurable. You can write an essay of any length by simply following our outline. All you will need to do after that is make a cover page for it.

Please share your natural disaster essay ideas in the comments below.

❓ Natural Disaster Essay FAQ

How to write an essay about natural disaster.

Your approach should depend on the discipline. But in any case, you can discuss the types of disasters, their consequences, characteristics, and preconditions. The excellent idea is to select a past disastrous event and analyze it from the economic, social, or individual point of view.

What Is a Disaster Essay?

A disaster essay explores the stages of a natural or man-made calamity and seeks the possible ways to prevent similar emergencies in the future. An article on disaster management studies the correct and efficient activities to lower the casualties and property loss after a disaster.

What Is Disaster Preparedness Essay?

This type of writing analyzes the level of readiness of a region or municipality to an unexpected natural disaster. You can highlight the vulnerable groups of the population that will suffer the most. Or, you may invent measures that could reduce the disaster response and coping time. Such assignments teach you strategic thinking and a systematic approach to problem-solving.

How to Describe a Natural Disaster for an Essay?

You should specify that the event was unexpected and led to many deaths and property loss. The most critical things include the causes of the disaster, its progress and duration, and the negative consequences for the locals. You can also specify the negative effect on the economy and humanitarian condition of the area.

🔗 References

• Natural Disasters and Severe Weather | CDC
• Types of Disasters | SAMHSA
• Natural Disaster – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
• Natural Disasters – National Geographic
• What Is Disaster Management: Prevention and Mitigation

Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Disasters — Natural Disasters

Essays on Natural Disasters

Hook examples for natural disasters essays, "nature's wrath unleashed" hook.

"Natural disasters remind us of the raw power of the Earth. Explore the awe-inspiring, yet devastating, forces that shape our world and challenge our resilience."

"Surviving the Unthinkable" Hook

"Survivors of natural disasters carry stories of strength and survival. Share firsthand accounts of individuals who faced nature's fury and emerged as heroes."

"Disaster Preparedness: Are We Ready?" Hook

"In an era of climate change, disaster preparedness is paramount. Analyze the state of our preparedness efforts, the role of technology, and the importance of community resilience."

"The Environmental Toll of Natural Disasters" Hook

"Beyond human impact, natural disasters take a toll on our environment. Investigate the ecological consequences of disasters and the long-term effects on ecosystems."

"Mitigating Disaster: A Race Against Time" Hook

"Scientists and policymakers are working tirelessly to mitigate the impact of natural disasters. Explore innovative strategies, early warning systems, and the quest to save lives."

"Humanitarian Response and Resilience" Hook

"Natural disasters bring out the best in humanity as communities and organizations rally to provide aid. Celebrate stories of humanitarian response and the strength of human resilience."

"The Future of Disaster Management" Hook

"As natural disasters become more frequent and severe, we must adapt. Discuss the future of disaster management, sustainable solutions, and global cooperation in the face of adversity."

The Effects of Climate Change on Global Weather Patterns

The devastating impact of hurricane katrina, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

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Assessing The Aftermath of The 2022 New York Flooding

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The Catastrophic Cyclone of April 1991 in Bangladesh

Ancient disasters in the world, what natural disasters occur in indonesia, the ethics behind publishing graphic images of natural disasters in face to face with tragedy, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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Why People Loot During Disasters and What Can Be Done to Resolve The Issue

Hurricane maria – a name puerto rico will never forget, public attitudes towards risk and how it contributes to vulnerability, tsunamis in the pacific ocean and indonesia, report on oklahoma tornado disaster in 1999, tornadoes and the importance to be prepared, earthquake and its devastating effects, hurricanes – the frightening challenges for new orleans, the portrayal of climate change in political discourse and its connection to natural disasters, the effects of earthquakes on the economy, hurricane katrina and crisis counseling, hurricane dorian – the worst natural disaster in bahamian history, past, present, and future integration of spatial technologies and techniques in disaster management, tsunami modeling of caribbean sources affecting the north coast of puerto rico, embracing technology in tornado recovery, the lessons we learnt from xenia tornado, nuclear waste: an american disaster, earthquake is essential for the earth, the economics during and after kerala’s flood disaster, probabilistic analysis of optimal management of storage areas .

A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth.

Geological disasters: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sinkholes, etc. Hydrological disasters: floods, tsunami, limnic eruptions. Meteorological disasters: droughts, tropical cyclone, blizzards, hailstorms, etc. Wildfires. Space disasters.

Damage paths of tornadoes can be in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long. Between 2000 and 2012, natural disasters caused $1.7 trillion in damage and affected 2.9 billion people. Floods are the most widespread natural disaster aside from wildfires. 90% of all US natural disasters declared by the president involve some sort of flooding.

Relevant topics

• Air Pollution
• Deforestation
• Global Warming
• Water Pollution
• Ocean Pollution
• Fast Fashion
• Climate Change

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Hot Oceans Worsened Dubai’s Dramatic Flooding, Scientists Say

An international team of researchers found that heavy rains had intensified in the region, though they couldn’t say for sure how much climate change was responsible.

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By Raymond Zhong

Scenes of flood-ravaged neighborhoods in one of the planet’s driest regions stunned the world this month. Heavy rains in the United Arab Emirates and Oman submerged cars, clogged highways and killed at least 21 people. Flights out of Dubai’s airport, a major global hub, were severely disrupted.

The downpours weren’t a total surprise — forecasters had anticipated the storms several days earlier and issued warnings. But they were certainly unusual.

Here’s what to know.

Heavy rain there is rare, but not unheard-of.

On average, the Arabian Peninsula receives a scant few inches of rain a year, although scientists have found that a sizable chunk of that precipitation falls in infrequent but severe bursts, not as periodic showers. These rains often come during El Niño conditions like the ones the world is experiencing now.

U.A.E. officials said the 24-hour rain total on April 16 was the country’s largest since records there began in 1949 . And parts of the nation had already experienced an earlier round of thunderstorms in March.

Oman, with its coastline on the Arabian Sea, is also vulnerable to tropical cyclones. Past storms there have brought torrential rain, powerful winds and mudslides, causing extensive damage.

Global warming is projected to intensify downpours.

Stronger storms are a key consequence of human-caused global warming. As the atmosphere gets hotter, it can hold more moisture, which can eventually make its way down to the earth as rain or snow.

But that doesn’t mean rainfall patterns are changing in precisely the same way across every part of the globe.

In their latest assessment of climate research , scientists convened by the United Nations found there wasn’t enough data to have firm conclusions about rainfall trends in the Arabian Peninsula and how climate change was affecting them. The researchers said, however, that if global warming were to be allowed to continue worsening in the coming decades, extreme downpours in the region would quite likely become more intense and more frequent.

Hot oceans are a big factor.

An international team of scientists has made a first attempt at estimating the extent to which climate change may have contributed to April’s storms. The researchers didn’t manage to pin down the connection precisely, though in their analysis, they did highlight one known driver of heavy rain in the region: above-normal ocean temperatures.

Large parts of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans have been hotter than usual recently, in part because of El Niño and other natural weather cycles, and in part because of human-induced warming .

When looking only at El Niño years, the scientists estimated that storm events as infrequent as this month’s delivered 10 percent to 40 percent more rain to the region than they would in a world that hadn’t been warmed by human activities. They cautioned, however, that these estimates were highly uncertain.

“Rainfall, in general, is getting more extreme,” said Mansour Almazroui, a climate scientist at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and one of the researchers who contributed to the analysis.

The analysis was conducted by scientists affiliated with World Weather Attribution, a research collaboration that studies extreme weather events shortly after they occur. Their findings about this month’s rains haven’t yet been peer reviewed, but are based on standardized methods .

The role of cloud seeding isn’t clear.

The U.A.E. has for decades worked to increase rainfall and boost water supplies by seeding clouds. Essentially, this involves shooting particles into clouds to encourage the moisture to gather into larger, heavier droplets, ones that are more likely to fall as rain or snow.

Cloud seeding and other rain-enhancement methods have been tried around the world, including in Australia, China, India, Israel, South Africa and the United States. Studies have found that these operations can, at best, affect precipitation modestly — enough to turn a downpour into a bigger downpour, but probably not a drizzle into a deluge.

Still, experts said pinning down how much seeding might have contributed to this month’s storms would require detailed study.

“In general, it is quite a challenge to assess the impact of seeding,” said Luca Delle Monache, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. Dr. Delle Monache has been leading efforts to use artificial intelligence to improve the U.A.E.’s rain-enhancement program.

An official with the U.A.E.’s National Center of Meteorology, Omar Al Yazeedi, told news outlets that the agency didn’t conduct any seeding during the latest storms. His statements didn’t make clear, however, whether that was also true in the hours or days before.

Mr. Al Yazeedi didn’t respond to emailed questions from The New York Times, and Adel Kamal, a spokesman for the center, didn’t have further comment.

Cities in dry places just aren’t designed for floods.

Wherever it happens, flooding isn’t just a matter of how much rain comes down. It’s also about what happens to all that water once it’s on the ground — most critically, in the places people live.

Cities in arid regions often aren’t designed to drain very effectively. In these areas, paved surfaces block rain from seeping into the earth below, forcing it into drainage systems that can easily become overwhelmed.

One recent study of Sharjah , the capital of the third-largest emirate in the U.A.E., found that the city’s rapid growth over the past half-century had made it vulnerable to flooding at far lower levels of rain than before.

Omnia Al Desoukie contributed reporting.

Raymond Zhong reports on climate and environmental issues for The Times. More about Raymond Zhong

eBaum's World

31 Before-and-After Photos of Human-Made and Natural Disasters

Posted: May 1, 2024 | Last updated: May 1, 2024

Today, a photo of a forest in Western Hungary is going viral because of what appears to be an optical illusion. The bottom half of each tree is covered in red, and that red comes up to precisely the same height for all of them. Despite looking Photoshopped, the image actually comes from the aftermath of a 2010 accident at the Ajkai Timföldgyár alumina, an aluminum oxide plant. A corner wall of a waste-retaining pond broke, releasing a torrent of toxic red sludge down a local stream. That stream then flooded much of the nearby area, coating everything from foliage to houses in a red hue. 

The aftermath of that disaster is pretty striking, but it is hardy the most destructive disaster in human history. A few of those are included on this collection of before and after photos ; showcasing the harrowing destruction both humans and mother nature can cause.

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