Chapter 6 Hazards And Disasters Salient Points Introduction
The extreme events that disrupt our normal activities and our daily lives and originate due to natural causes human activities or combined activities of both, are called hazards.
The temporary or permanent events caused by natural or human activities endangering human life causing great damage to life and property, which degrade the quality of the environment and last for a long time, are called disasters.
French word ‘des’ means ‘bad’ and ‘aster’ means ‘star’ and the aggregation of these two words is a disaster (bad star).
Many lives and a huge amount of property were damaged by flash floods on 16 July 2013 in Uttarakhand. It was a disaster.
A huge amount of property was damaged and millions of people were killed due to the Tsunami on 26 December 2004 in the surrounding countries of the Bay of Bengal in south-east Asia.
In 2001, millions of people died due to the earthquake in Bhuj City in Gujarat.
Read and Learn Also WBBSE Class 9 Geography And Environment Notes
In 1902, Saint Pierre city was destroyed due to the volcanic eruption of Mt. Pelee volcano in the West Indies.
The landslide-prone zones of West Bengal are Darjeeling and Kalimpong. But, the hilly areas of the Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts also face landslides.
The most cyclone-prone areas of West Bengal are North and South 24 Parganas and Purba and Paschim Medinipur districts.
Drought-prone areas of West Bengal are the western plateau and its adjacent regions (Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum, Paschim Bardhaman, Paschim Medinipur and Jhargram districts).
The most flood-prone areas of West Bengal are the Sundarban region, the coastal region of Purba Medinipur, the northern Terai region, and the Rarh plain due to the release of excessive water from barrages and reservoirs.
Cyclones are known by different names in different countries, such as
Cyclone in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea,
Typhoon in the China Sea, Taifu in Japan, Hurricane in the West Indies and Caribbean Sea, Willy-Willy in Australia,
Tornados in Mexico and southeast America, Baguio in the Philippines, etc.
Richter Scale is a measuring scale of earthquake intensity.
Hazards And Disasters Notes For Class 9 WBBSE Geography
In 1935, CF Richter invented the measuring scale of earthquake intensity.
It is not possible to stop a disaster most of the time. However, some measures can be taken to tackle the effects of a disaster to reduce the loss of life and damage to property. Such measures are called disaster management.
Three steps of disaster management are pre-disaster management, during-disaster management, and post-disaster management.
The possibility of loss or damage due to any hazard or disaster is called risk.
While the disaster or hazard intensified, people could not resist and surrender to it. This is called vulnerability.
All the essential materials that are sent to the disaster-affected people are called relief.
Disaster mitigation means the measures that are taken before a disaster to eliminate or reduce the intensity of the damage.
Rehabilitation is a process, which brings back the disaster-affected people into normal life after the disaster.
The three disaster prevention processes are together known as PMR, where
P = Preparedness or preparation,
M = Mitigation or reduction and
R = Recovery or reclamation.
The helper’s group for the quick response or relief and rescue work management is called QRT (Quick Response Team)
DART (Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami) is a special system for Tsunami alertness.
The act that was enacted in 2005 to deal with the management of disasters is called the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
The full form of UNDMT is the United Nations Disaster Management Team.
The National Flood Commission was formed in 1980.