How is this possible? The economy looks so bright; the Sensex has reached it’s highest ever only in 2005. India has been ranked as the Best Destination for FDI with Investments running in billions of dollars.
This is how it happened.
The tectonic plates that were sitting still for millions of years decide to scratch their back a little, how would they know that by then millions would be dead and billions lost. Few hurricanes and cyclones tired of monotony chose to play, little did they knew this would leave mega cities inundated, and render millions homeless.
Starting from 26th December 2004, India has witnessed over seven natural calamities and 2005 became a year of largest financial loss as a result of weather-related disasters.
The loss is estimated to be over Rs. 87,500 crore during this year with some of the industrialized states getting the hardest blow.
The Mumbai floods, that created history for receiving the most down pour in a single day (944 m) combined with the ONGC’s Bombay High disaster caused a loss of 30,000 crore. Tsunami and the recent floods in Tamil Nadu cost a cumulative 44,000 crore. That’s not all, the Karnataka floods cost 7500 crore, the Gujarat floods 4500 Crore and the Himachal floods 3,000 crore. If there were floods all over here, there were other parts that were drying in drought. Of course, let’s not exclude the earthquake in Kashmir.
We are not alone in this issue, the December’s Tsunami created havoc from the coasts of Australia all the way to Somalia, destroying everything in its way. There were earth quakes in Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and POK. China faced severe floods.
Who can forget what Wilma and Katrina (not the models but the Hurricanes) did to US? Wilma (Miss Universe) was the strongest Hurricane ever while Katrina (Miss World) was the costliest Hurricane ever with a price tag of over $125 bn.
Across the globe, weather-related disasters led to an estimated $200 bn loss in ’05 compared to $145 bn in ’04.
Are we testing the limits of ecological balance? Is this Mother Nature’s way of teaching her children to respect her?
As the most intelligent and the single most dominant species of a world that’s shared by billions of different species, it’s our duty to conserve nature.
Act now or there won’t be a tomorrow.
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2 comments:
nicely summarized Karthik!
hey frankly after reading this how many of us can still believe we are the most intelligent life form on this planet ? funny we are searching for intelligent life elsewhere.but good job with the article.
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