Beauty and the beast. Nature has both these mani-festations, but of late one only gets to see the latter the most. Recent quake is the latest addition to the long line of disasters that nature has left in its wake just in the past year. Yes, there were bigger disasters before, but somehow one gets the feeling that the tsunami of December last was some kind of a watershed. With that, nature seems to have declared an irrevocable war on humanity. For once science would even bear out this sentiment.
The trail of natural disasters has been a humbling experience for humanity that in all hubris often claimed to have conquered nature. It appears we have not even scratched the surface. This was quite evident last month when the mighty Uncle Sam was brought to his knees, first by the ferocity of killer Katrina and then by the mere fear evoked by the teasing Rita. The American example is relevant, for if the US can’t take, then who can? So much so that, Newsweek commented: ‘New Orleans resembled a Third World scene’. The inherent smugness in the report was also a tacit admission that humans are humans, in whichever world they are, what with the looting, arson and disease that followed shaming America no end.
Torrential rains in Mumbai are such an annual ritual that Mumbaikars just go about their business as usual. But this year it was different. And what a sea of difference it was, literally. As Mumbai lay marooned, the entire Indian business life came to a standstill. And in a quirky touch of fate, simultaneously a few rigs on the Bombay High went up in flames; it appeared as if the elements were out to get the financial capital of the country. A month earlier Gujarat faced a similar situation with unprecedented floods ravaging the State. While seasonal rains caused more than the expected damage, unseasonal rains in several parts have also unleashed untold misery this year.
Tremors are a daily affair in the Andamans and Indonesia. After the tsunami, scientists have seriously got down to rework and review all the seismic theories which seem to have more faultlines than the earth itself. Though predicting earthquakes is a tall order, places once considered immune are now being categorised as quake-prone, of course, post quakes. Nature conceals its secrets well.
And everywhere nature’s fury is being compounded by man’s folly. Bush fiddled as New Orleans sank. Mumbai Municipality was the first to go under in the rains. Now quake riddled Pakistan is suffering owing to its own excesses: Musharraf wants relief materials but not relief workers in PoK, because he fears the terrorist networks would be laid bare. It is learnt that many of those terror camps have truly gone underground. Several villages are still unreachable and may remain so. J&K, torn by strife already, has taken a nasty beating and the pain has been aggravated because the rest of the country appears to have forgotten its citizens. So far the aid to the State, which is still a part of India, has been meagre, alienating it still more.
Really, the worst natural disaster appears to be humans themselves! Environmentalists are crying hoarse, but governments bent on chasing ‘development’ seem to care less. The people are simply ignorant, buried in their own worlds of pleasure, profit and make-believe. Greenhouse gases are converting the globe into a furnace. Reckless deforestation on hills is causing landslides that kill more than quakes do. The sea is bent on reclaiming whatever man has claimed from it.
Potable water may beat the oil reserves in going dry. And why not? For every litre of cola or mineral water that the cola companies package to us, they suck out nearly three litres of ground water! But all such concerns remain confined to seminar halls and conferences. Mankind is certainly not being kind to itself by all these excesses.
Down here in Chennai, there is some cheer though. Sure, it rains only in fits and starts, but that itself is a bounty for this water starved metro. However high the rainfall, we are bound to have a shortfall, because the deficit backlog is over decades. Still, every drop counts. The advancing of the mon’soon’ is good news, but its endurance is anybody’s guess. But what is common knowledge is the city’s endurance if the rain gods choose to laugh instead of just smile. Chennai simply cannot survive a deluge; indeed, the present instalment scheme divined by nature fits us well though it may not fill us to the full. Abundance or scarcity, water is always a problem here!
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