Major natural disasters occurring in India:
(i) Earthquake: An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth’ crust that creates seismic waves. At the Earth’ surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration, shaking, and sometimes, displacement of the ground. Earthquakes are caused by slippage within geological faults. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the seismic focus. The point directly above the focus on the surface is called the epicentre. On January 26, 2001, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the state of Gujarat, *** over 20,000 people.
(ii) Landslide: A landslide is described as an outward and downward slope movement of an abundance of slopeforming materials including rock, soil, artificial, or even a combination of these things. The landslide which took place on June 16, 2013 at Kedarnath, Uttarakhand was the result of Uttarakhand floods. Over 5700 were reported **** and over 4,200 villages had been affected by the flood and post-flood landslides.
(iii) Floods: A flood is an overflow of water that ‘submerges’ the land. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or a lake, which overflows, causing the result that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries. Assam flood of 2012 ** at least 120 people and also affected the life of the people in 1744 villages spread across nine districts.
