What is in a name, asked Shakespeare. Here are some beautiful names — Remal, Katrina, El Nino, Nancy. How sweet the names are. But ask those people who have come into contact with them. We have been witness to the death dance of the tsunami. And watched on TV the ferocious playfulness of Katrina. El Nino and Nancy are two other behemoths. In Bengal, we are now facing cyclone Remal which we wished remained like Beckett’s Godot, who does not come.
Remal makes us reflect on the vagaries of nature. Are natural calamities merely natural phenomena? Perhaps scientists and materialists may argue that. But a majority of the people who believe that there are some unseen powers controlling the universe may see in the natural calamities deep and complex meanings. When the negativism in man’s approach to nature crosses limits, nature itself gives an exemplary punishment. This is a belief prevalent in many civilisations. We believe that when the earth cannot bear the weight of all its sinners, Kalki comes with a drawn sword as the slayer incarnate. There is another belief that the great flood came to put an end to the sinful life of man. There are widespread legends that whole cities and other human habitations disappeared in massive floods and eruptions of the seas.
The belief is that towards the close of the Dwapara Yuga, the Yadava clan brought annihilation upon itself because of intense infighting among its members and that Sri Krishna’s capital Dwarka was engulfed by the surging seas. The fabulous city of Atlantis that disappeared in the sea and the imaginary land of El Dorado still excite the anxiety of researchers. This is our realisation when we go from the realm of beliefs to the borderlands of science. The increase in nature’s temperature levels is because of the flaws in the lifestyle of modern man. This adversely affects the climate. The sea level increases uncontrollably and calamities like floods and turbulence of the sea occur. If the situation continues like this, cities like London, New York, Chennai and Bangkok will be submerged in the sea, warn scientists.
Whether it is faith or science, what transpires is the same. If you attempt to break the vitals of nature, retribution is certain. And this affects the very existence of humanity. It is clear, therefore, that the brutish style of “might is right” does not have the approval of nature. That is the expert advice given to us jointly by the tsunami,by Katrina, El Nino, Nancy, and latest by Remal.
According to Richard Black, it is possible to turn calamities into blessings. But the problem is that like history, calamity also has a propensity to repeat itself. The world has witnessed many calamities over the years. In areas through which the river Mississippi flows, havoc wrought by typhoons, and the floods that come in their wake, is a recurring phenomenon. But it appears as if man does not learn from experience.
Hurricane Katrina
Katrina had her danse macabre in 2005 also on the banks of the Mississippi river. About 85 per cent of New Orleans was submerged. This town would have been destroyed by the heavy floods of 1927 when Mississippi was in spate, but the city was saved then because of a crucial decision taken by the administration. They used dynamite to open up a new way for the overflowed river to drain into the sea. There was stiff opposition to the decision as many people feared that houses would be washed away by the sudden surge of water. But ignoring all protests, the authorities went ahead with their decision.
The havoc caused by floods is a cause of perennial sorrow for America. It was surprising that a nation with tremendous resources and technological excellence could not put in place the necessary infrastructure to effectively check natural calamities.
Long ago, in America, a movement had warned of hurricanes in this region 22 times. Scientists have concluded that it was global warming that aggravated the hurricane systems. Kerry Emanuel, a researcher at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that the destructive power of the hurricanes had doubled in a period of three years. The reason for this was the increase in surface temperature by just 0.05 degrees Celsius. Do not forget that it is America that is mainly responsible for global warming. When natural calamities recur because of excesses committed by men, we think of the biblical prophecy: “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Remember, there may not be a Noah’s ark again.
The devastating natural calamities should serve as an eye-opener for us. Science has not yet been able to clearly predict the timing and intensity of the shockers. An expert committee appointed by the government of India had indicated areas that are prone to earthquakes. But the authenticity of its findings is questionable.
Tale of the Imperial Hotel
Japan is one of the wealthiest and most advanced nations in the world. It had found easy answers to many of its problems with the help of science and technology. Japan is in the vanguard of the electronics revolution that has swept the world. There is also a Japanese imprint on a vast majority of motorcars made in the world. Yet, the country has not been able to find a solution to its perennial problem of earthquakes. Japan accounts for as high as 15 per cent of all the earthquakes in the world.
It suffered one of its worst earthquakes in 1923. Almost the entire cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were laid waste, and over 300,000 houses crumbled. As the quake hit, unfathomable gorges suddenly appeared on the roads, sending hundreds of cars and thousands of people hurtling down. With more shakes in tow, the gorges were filled up soon, burying alive those hapless thousands. Tokyo’s high-rise buildings collapsed like houses of cards, and gas leaks caused extensive fires, forcing people to run for their lives. Frantic people ran towards the rivers to escape the fury of the conflagrations, but the surge of the crowds was so great that many wooden bridges collapsed, unable to withstand their weight.
Surprisingly, one high-rise building in Tokyo withstood the ravages of the quake — the Imperial Hotel, designed by the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He had designed it as a quake-resistant structure. The number of dead and injured in this quake was as high as 2,40,000 — much higher than the toll from the atomic bomb hit on Hiroshima.
The fury of the quake opened Japan’s eyes. With sustained efforts made on the technology front, Japan has today evolved a mechanism to effectively deal with calamities of this kind. In Tokyo, for instance, it has constructed quake-resistant reservoirs capable of holding drinking water sufficient to meet the city’s needs for 10 days. Similar is the case with storehouses of food for a comparable period.
Devastation and miracles in Mexico and Peru
Each country may have a tragic story of its own to tell. The 1985 quake that ravaged Mexico was so severe that its impact was felt in distant Houston in the United States, 1,200 km away. For rescue efforts, canines proved more effective than humans. In sniffing out those trapped in the debris of crashed buildings, trained dogs rendered an invaluable service. Another significant fact that came out of the tragedy was the special faculty that infants have in surviving the rigours of earthquakes. Many of the newborns in Mexico hospitals miraculously survived, though they had remained under debris for several days. The explanation by experts for this strange phenomenon is psychological. Life-saving energy is quickly depleted in the case of adults shocked by sudden calamity, but these infants who are not aware of the gravity of the happenings around them do not use up their life force.
Experts describe the 1970 quake in Peru as the most devastating one in the southern hemisphere. It was in a matter of seconds that an entire city was reduced to rubble. Over 5,000 people were killed and 300,000 were rendered homeless. The quake caused the snowcaps of the Nevado Huascaran mountain range to melt, causing landslides on an unprecedented scale. When the debris of hundreds of houses on the hillside washed away in the landslide and made a huge heap at Cemetery Hill, only a statue of Jesus stood upright and intact. Perhaps a symbol of divine mercy.
In 1988, many towns in Armenia in the then-Soviet Union virtually vanished without a trace when the earth gave way in a cataclysmic shake. Over a hundred thousand people perished in the quake that measured nine on the Richter scale. In Leninakan city, of a population of 300,000, over eighty per cent of the buildings collapsed. Spitak city became just a memory.
The gross inadequacy of rescue and relief measures came to light after the event. The official newspaper Pravda said that each relief worker had 10 advisers, who gave advice but did not do anything to speedily remove the debris and try to bring out the hapless trapped underneath. What happened was the unpardonable delay of hours in relief efforts, causing the toll to mount.
Predictions can only be so useful
The truth is that despite best efforts, it is not possible to predict all calamities. The US has a comprehensive earthquake hazards programme named the Parkfield prediction experiment that makes use of sophisticated equipment and advanced technology. Yet, generally speaking, earthquake prediction mechanisms now cannot claim a status above astrology. The Chinese, however, have an ingenious, and indigenous, system of early prediction of quakes. What they do is to observe the behavior of animals which show some restlessness in the pre-quake period. The Chinese, therefore, learn from the peculiar way in which dogs bark, cocks crow and serpents crawl in the period before the shakes manifest.
In Sichuan in China, in Pakistan, in Gujarat in India and in several other places, we faced earthquakes in which lakhs of people perished and vast areas laid waste. But we should remember that what we heard in these places was not the roar of the Earth but its murmur — not a bang but a whimper.
Those who think that government’s permission is enough to go against Earth’s vitals hammer and tongs would do well to check whether they have got the permission of Mother Earth for their designs. Don’t they say, “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake”?
The writer is Governor, West Bengal
