“Anybody, somebody please help us; even atheist seeking mercy to god”. After 80 year’s earthquake hits Nepal and its aftershocks were felt all over the north east and north India. As per NDRF thousands of people have lost their lives and several injured.
Eram Eqbal for BeyondHeadlines
“Nepal is scary” said Sujatro Ghosh, a Bengal base photographer who has landed Kathmandu on April, 27thto analyse the situation. Country has turned into land of corpses. Parent’s searching their children, infants wailing on roadside. Voices coming out of debris pleading for help. Bewildered homes and cracked roads is all that one can witness their right now with naked eyes.
Indian government has promised to help casualties. NDRF team is working meticulously with full effort to help citizens. Aircraft service has been made operational to work at faster speed. Relief and rescue operation is at peak. Various NGO’s like GOONJ has also taken initiatives to collect fund for vulnerable.
Amidst the entire situation one question is haunting me which need to be answered, how long and how far these calamities will take place. On one hand we are planning to settle at mars, searching lives at other planets. On other hand we are not able to control massive natural disaster. Global warming is taking place. According to WHO report in 2014, 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India. Erstwhile vice president of United States, Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” on climate change has given a wider picture of global warming. Worldwide debate has arisen. Initiatives like climate march have been taken by activists to take global action against climate change. But what is the ground reality? How impactful it is at grass root level?
Humans across the country have come forward to support Nepal. Such calamities will occur in future too. Today Nepal is suffering; tomorrow it can be India’s turn and so on. Concrete measures are required to be implemented. How long and how far rescue relief and restoration will be done. It’s a critical situation where the world is reaching. All over the country people need to think about its root cause. How can we stop it? If not stop at least we can try and reduce the probability of hazards. Few panel discussions and board-room suggestions are not enough. At the end of the day, these issues just remain in news for few weeks and then everyone gets busy in their own work. On a serious note this major problem of climate change has to be taken care off.
After all we are spending huge on infrastructures, technologies, defence and education. But the basic thing is survival. If such calamities and hazards will happen at same account then any kind of development will reach back to square one.. Before upgrading lifestyle it’s better we upgrade climate. And for this every individual has to step forward and participate rather than being a mere silent spectator of misfortunes.
(Author is a student of AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi pursuing MA in Development Communication.)
Photo Credit: Sujatro Ghosh
