Disaster Education and Management: A Joyride for Students, Teachers and Disaster Managers

368 Pages·2014·27.35 MB·English

Rajendra Kumar Bhandari
Disaster Education
and Management
A Joyride for Students,
Teachers and Disaster Managers
Disaster Education and Management

Rajendra Kumar Bhandari
Disaster Education
and Management
A Joyride for Students, Teachers,
and Disaster Managers
123
Rajendra KumarBhandari
Indian NationalAcademy ofEngineering
New Delhi
India
ISBN 978-81-322-1565-3 ISBN 978-81-322-1566-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-1566-0
SpringerNewDelhiHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
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This book on Disaster Education and
Management a joyride for students, teachers,
and disaster managers is a humble offering of
the SSS Foundation to Shyam and Sushila−my
revered parents, and to Sneh−my loving sister.
Even decades after they have gone, stories of
their lives remain as fresh, unforgettable, and
hugely inspiring. Their mission was to live for
others and to bind the world around them
with the glue of everlasting relationships.
The author
Preface
What is the use of a book without pictures and
conversations?
AliceintheWonderland
This is a typical book providing us with a pleasant
mix of information about disasters with cartoons,
illustrations, and quotes. The author, Dr. R. K.
Bhandariexcelsinpresentingdisastereducationina
captivatingmanner.Thebookisnotaburdentoread
butprovidesalotoffunalongwitheducation.Iagree
that it gives a joyride through the huge arena of a
variety of disasters. There you find coverage of a
biblical array of disasters like earthquakes, tsuna-
mis, volcanoes, landslides, cyclones, tornadoes,
floods, fires, and blizzards. The book guides us through lessons in disaster man-
agement, public response, and disaster preparedness. Safety procedures are con-
stantlyevolvingandDr.Bhandarihaspresentedthelatestprocedures.
Introducing scientific and technological developments into disaster manage-
mentisofvalue.Disasterscauseenormouslossestotheeconomy.Itshouldbethe
global endeavor to develop and adopt new technologies to improve prediction of
hazards and disasters. Above all, education is needed to create greater public
awareness about the threat, the scourge of disasters pose. The book is a praise-
worthy attemptinthisdirection.Ihopethatthisbookwillreachawide audience.
S. K. Joshi
Formerly, President, Indian National Science Academy
Director General, Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research and the Secretary to the
Government of India, New Delhi
vii
Acknowledgments
The book in your hands would never have seen the light of day without the
author’s direct exposure to disasters enriched by an unending feed of a whole
range of information from dozens of excellent papers, reports, and books. Every
efforthasbeenmadetoadequatelyacknowledgeallsourcesofinformationwhich
infuse life into the book and further effort will continue to rid the book of the
lapses, if and when detected or pointed out.
Information and permissions can be acknowledged but I do not really know
howtoadequatelyacknowledgetheinsightsandsupportthatIhavereceivedfrom
a large number of my teachers, my colleagues, and my students. My most pro-
found thanks go to Prof. S. K. Joshi, a former President of the Indian National
Science Academy, for his insightful comments as also for writing the Preface to
the book. Likewise, I have no words to thank Prof. D. V. Singh, a former Vice
President of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, for his painstaking
review ofthemanuscriptandexceptionalcomments.Iamparticularlythankfulto
myoldfriend—Mr.SunilFernando,anacknowledgedartistwhomadeandbaked
the cartoons in the heat of my thought-furnace—always with a smile on his face,
and to Dr. Biman Basu for the editorial assistance.
The book owes a lot to the legendary Cartoonist Ranga for his cartoon of
MahatmaGandhidrawnonmyautographbookwithafewmasterlystrokesofhis
pencil.Whatwasitifnotawondertomakeasimplecartoonspeakvolumesabout
thegreatestman ofourtimeswithoutsayingasingleword?Itisfromthissimple
but powerful cartoon that I picked the semantics of the book for which I thank
Ranga.
I thank Dr. Arther C. Clark, Dr. R. Rubik, and Dr. Muhammad Yunus for the
giftsofthreesubject-relatedthoughtfulmessagesrecordedinmyautographbook.
In fact we must all thank Dr. Clark for his message Do not panic. These three
simplewordshavethepowertosaveamillionlivesamilliontimes!Dr.R.Rubik,
the Inventor of the famous Rubik’s cube, wrote be curious forever and Dr.
Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Laureate wrote ‘‘keep trying.’’ When the three
messages are read together, no further message may be necessary!
IwouldliketomostsincerelythankPradeepNilangaDela,DiyawadanaNilame
of the Sacred temple of the Tooth-Relic-Sri Dalada Maligawa of SriLanka for
permissiontoreproducethefamouspaintingoftheDaladaprocessionthatincluded
theparticipationoftheBritishrulers,asalsofortherelatedplaquewhichspeaksof
themagicofBuddha’stoothrelic.ItwastheexpositionoftheTooth-Relic which
ix
x Acknowledgments
created an intense flood to wash away a sticky drought. The assistance received
from Nirmala, Wijewickrama, Brigadier Udayanta Wijeratne, and Major Chandr-
atillake, the Administrative Secretary of Dalada Maligawa in obtaining the per-
mission is thankfully acknowledged.
The author thanks UNICEF for the permission to use one of their original
cartoons which made it possible to highlight the ultimate joy of freedom from
disasters.ThanksareduetotheEditor-in-ChiefofMediaTransasiaIndiaLimited,
especiallytoMuradAliBaig,forpermissiontousethreecartoonsfromhisarticle
published in January 2001 issue of the Swagat Magazine. Permissions from India
Today for a cartoon published in its issue of 6 March 2006 and from Hindustan
Times for their Salt Pepper Cartoon published on 2 August 1998 are thankfully
acknowledged. An Arun Inamdar cartoon from his book of cartoons published by
the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai has been reproduced with his kind
permission.
Thebookhasreceivedacclamationfromreviewersevenbeforeitispublished.I
amparticularlygratefultoDr.WolfgangEderandDr.EduardodeMulderofEarth
Science Matters, The Netherlands; Dr. Alexander Strom, Moscow; Prof. Renato
Eugenio de Lima of Brazil; Dr. D. V. Singh, former Director, Indian Institute of
Technology,Roorkee,India;Mr.J.C.Pant,formerChairmanoftheHighPowered
Committee of the Government of India on Disaster Management, Prof. Robin
ChowdhuryofWollongongUniversity,Australia;Dr.P.G.DharChakrabarti, the
Founder Executive Director of the National Disaster Management Institute, New
Delhi; Mr. N. M. S. I. Arambepola, Executive Director of Asia Disaster Pre-
paredness Centre, Thailand; Prof. Vinod Sharma of Indian Institute of Public
Administration; Prof. Chandan Ghosh of National Institute of Disaster Manage-
ment, India and Prof. Hideaki Marui of Niigata University, Japan for very
encouraging review remarks.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank Prof. Mahendra Bhandari, Mr.
Saurabh Bhandari, Ms. Avantina Bhandari, Master Amol Mendonca, Mr. V. K.
Mathur, Ms. Anjana Singhwi, Mr. Shambhoo Kumar, and Mr. Rahul Sharma for
their helpful assistance throughout the development of the book. Most of all, I
thank my wife Mrs. Meena Bhandari for her understanding and endless patience.
The Author’s Hello to Readers
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity, said Aristotle
centuries before adversity began to hurt humankind so hard as it does now,
especiallyintheworldofnaturaldisasters.HadAristotlebeenalivetoday,perhaps
hewouldhaveregardeddisastereducationasourbesthopeandmightiestweapon
toreign-indisasters,onthewaytosafety.Itisparadoxical,however,thatthemore
we have come to know about disasters and their management since the times of
Aristotle, the more our fear and curiosity of knowing about them have grown.
While humankind, by its very nature, continues to strive hard to unravel the
mysteries of the unknown, a lot can be achieved in the meantime by putting the
known knowledge to effective use in comprehending, preventing, and managing
natural disasters. Simply speaking, disaster education lies at the heart of disaster
risk reduction, management, and safety.
Disastereducationismeantforeverybodyandtherefore,sadlyenough,itison
thedolistofnobody.Theironyisthatalthoughthesubjectishugelycriticaltothe
survival of humankind as a whole, it continues to dodge the human imagination
most of the time. There are numerous reasons for this. Many people do not see
naturaldisastersasatoday’sproblembecausetheyareoverlybusyfightingthefire
ofday-to-dayproblemsoflifewhichrobthemofthetime,urge,orenergytoeven
consider what might happen or hurt tomorrow. After all, natural disasters have
come and gone for centuries on end and humankind still survives; and God-
willing, it will continue to do so. At the worst of the times, people do get some
transient pain in their hearts which only fleetingly weeps for the victims as and
whendisasteroccur.Isitnottruethatmostofusraiseourhandsupindespairand
take comfort in hiding behind the age old adage that what cannot be cured has to
be endured? All this is slowly but surely changing for safer times.
We now see a beam of hope in the disaster-fearing but education-awakened
populace and in the inherited virtue of the service-beyond-self. Additionally, the
good news is that an all-out war against disasters has broken-out worldwide and
the threats of disasters are no longer being taken as catcalls of local concern.
National governments across the globe and disaster-related international agencies
areleftwith nooptionotherthan toeducate,equip,andempowertheir respective
peoples. They know that safety will continue to elude people if they are not
empowered to help themselves and continuously build on their capacities and
partnerships.
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