Nature's fury

AS INDIA MOURNS the thousands who have died in Gujarat, it is worth recognising that how we respond to this overwhelming disaster will be a test of our collective humanity. Earthquakes can neither be predicted nor prevented. But Governments and civil society must react with purpose and speed to the devastation that these natural forces wreak on the human and natural landscape. As the aftershocks of the Kutch quake continue to take place, there are hundreds of thousands of stunned and grieving people who will need all the help they can get to cope with death, injury and destruction. The people of Gujarat can demonstrate resourcefulness to a very high degree. This, however, is a national calamity in which the pace and extent of the recovery of Gujarat will depend on the support the State receives from the rest of India.

It is irrelevant whether the earthquake measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale, as the Indian Meteorological Department says its intensity was, or 7.9 as independent Indian seismologists and foreign centres claim it was. What is real is the intensity of ruin it has spread over even a relatively sparsely populated State such as Gujarat. Besides, while news has come in of what has happened in the cities and towns, there is a near silence about the situation in the villages. Providing help in the form of medical supplies, temporary shelters and even financial resources is much the easier part of implementing relief programmes. The more difficult aspects are coordinating the administration of relief and in the long-term rebuilding local communities and economies. This is not a time for carping but initial news reports are of a leaden-footed response from a paralysed State Government. And while the Central Government made all the right noises about rushing help to the affected areas, it would appear that even a full 24 hours after the quake struck relief operations had not yet gone into high gear. For the larger part, local communities were left to their own devices to clear the rubble and rescue the few who had managed to survive Nature's fury. Time and again Central and State Governments move sluggishly even as thousands of lives hang precariously in the balance. This was evident during the Orissa cyclone of 1999 and appears to have happened on this year's Republic Day as well. The larger issue is that although more than 50 million Indians are believed to be hit by natural disasters every year, we still do not have a workable disaster management plan at any level of the Government. It is a disaster of another kind that a nation that takes pride in being a nuclear power comes up short time and again in preparing for the after-effects of a natural disaster. More often than not, as many people suffer first because of a slow response from the Government and then because of tardy relief and rehabilitation as are affected by the initial wave of destruction wrought by Nature. People are also made to suffer because the search for criminal profits stretches Nature's tolerance. Gujarat lies in the region identified as the most seismic-prone in the country, yet not even the simplest of earthquake-proofing measures appear to have been followed in the construction of buildings. The collapse of a number of newly- constructed multi-storeyed structures in Ahmedabad even as many of the older ones survived shows that callous builders and conniving officials have flouted the basic rules. The costs of such violations hopefully will be one painful lesson that will now be learnt throughout India.

It is a cruel irony that the two most severe earthquakes in the past half century have struck on days of national celebration - on August 15, 1950, and now on January 26. It is a moot point if this year's Republic Day parade in the Capital, a show of armed might and festivities, should have ended early because the intensity of the earthquake must surely have been known even as the march was in progress. That, however, is in the past. Now the collective focus must be on rebuilding Gujarat.

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