The Hindu Business Line : Tsunami effect

AFTER EVERY HORRENDOUS tragedy on the scale of Sunday's tsunami, when the mind has digested the statistics and the gory images, and the consoling words have been said, there remains the long and hard trek back to reality, most of all for the victims. There are cautionary lessons for others, however, in two directions: how to manage the recovery and rehabilitation quickly and with minimum fuss; and how to be better prepared when next such collective trauma strikes, as it inevitably will. We might never be able to predict precisely when and where Nature will strike next — or how, but we could mitigate the effects through early warning.

Our first priority, therefore, is an urgent review of preparedness and joining the international groups dealing with such disasters. The cost of the sensing equipment can be no reason for not acting. The State governments must bring themselves to give up some expensive pomp and ceremony and collect their taxes more efficiently, if need be, in order to afford the capital outlay. Second, well meant help and charity offered at this emotional moment must be managed honestly, and the usual corruption and leakage avoided. Third, seeking political advantage or scoring brownie points at the expense of another party at this stage is nothing short of inhuman and uncivilised. Instead, leaders could check what, if anything, the MLAs and MPs concerned did to bring succour to the affected areas within the first 12 hours. Those who did not take any action deserve to be exposed. District and municipal administrations should build bridges with local communities and voluntary organisations providing relief at times of great distress. Fourth, it is essential to pool together the expertise available in the country and organise an awareness-raising campaign society-wide in favour of those practices that systematically protect and enhance the sustainability of our ecosystem — and discourage the ones that destroy it. The worst tragedies of mankind come not from randomness of Nature but our inability to learn from experience and intelligently harness the knowledge we already have. We don't need another unthinkable disaster to see the obvious. Recent initiatives in social forestry, rain-water harvesting and segregation of bio-degradable waste are examples of belated recognition of creeping disasters that are no less lethal potentially.

The environment is ultimately the people's legacy and not that of a faceless creature called the government. That the earth should open up and send killer waves onto the land is proof that ancient Man's primordial fear and reverence for Nature was born neither of ignorance nor stupidity. Water, the air we breathe, the space above and the earth we occupy for our allotted span, and the energy fields in which we are permanently enveloped are borderless, universal and indivisible. Our task is to stand in awe of their strength and strive to conserve them. As the ancients knew so well, we don't own Nature but hold it in trust for posterity.

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