India's Main Hazards
Unfortunately, India is extremely prone to an array of different natural hazards including floods, fires, earthquakes, cyclones, hurricanes, landslides, etc. However, the two most common and detrimental natural hazards are floods and earthquakes. If I was moving to India, I would ideally want to live in a lower zone/risk area such as Ahmedabad. A whopping total of India’s 38 major cities have been known to be high-risk zones for earthquakes. Unfortunately, India has a negative past of not having stable and earthquake-proof buildings to prepare for these disasters. That is the first step and priority that will have to take place to make India a safer place once the next earthquake hits. The more prepared, the less of a disaster it will be. The main reason for India being such a high-risk earthquake country is due to the Indian plate under Asia. It makes around 54% of India prone to earthquakes! The area of India that I would focus on helping prepare for first would be the Zone 5 areas which include Kashmir, the Central Himalayas, and North and Middle Bihar. Since they are Zone 5, this means that they are the greatest magnitude earthquakes and have the biggest risk of destruction.
Floods are so prone in India because of the heavy rains and loose ground vegetation. Properly preparing for floods is extremely important because floods can lead to death, destroying homes, washing away agriculture, ruining buildings, and contaminating food and drinking water. Some of the best ways to prepare for floods is to scientifically estimate rainfall so they’ll eventually get the average per season each year, which will have the country be more ready for the heavy rains to hit. It would be smartest to help start preparing for the floods in the Indian state of Gujarat where there’s a very high flood risk. It would also be beneficial to have buildings build higher and stronger walls, build important things and houses above flood levels, get waterproof and strong food storage containers. and plant trees in ways that will slow down the water flow. If I were to move to India and have it be a priority to avoid floods, I would live somewhere that wasn’t close to any large body of water and was at the top of a hill. It would also be very effective for everyone to have emergency bags that will have all of the necessary items already together for when a disaster hits.
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Thank you for taking this class with us. I hope you enjoyed while learning about natural hazards in the world and India (I know I did)!
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