Remember the Malin tragedy? Due to incessant rains, and apparently also due to faulty farming patterns atop the nearby hill, a deadly landslide buried an entire village. Literally in a 'split' second, the debris destroyed hundreds of lives.
A similar fate is hanging over the village called Blatten in the Lotschenthal valley in the Valais region of Switzerland. Mount Kleines Nesthorn has literally been divided in to two, and the resultant debris is collapsing on the Birch Glacier below. With rocks shooting out like bullets, there is no knowing when the debris would tumble down in a huge heap of slush causing a flood and total destruction of the entire village.
The Swiss authorities have reacted responsibly and rapidly. The entire village has been evacuated, including animals. Why, even a lame cow called Joanie has been air-lifted with the help of a helicopter, thus making real the legend of the cow flying over the moon! Researched carefully and filmed wisely, the possible landside which may occur any time has as usual attracted catastrophe tourism!
Such eventualities seem to be happening regularly these days all across the world. A week ago in Argentina, ice chunks broke off a glacier due to 'calving'. Chile witnessed five such disturbances recently, not to forget the South Pole glaciers melting, and America hopes to own the resultant strait as an alternative to the Panama Canal! Remember the Uttarakhand tragedy in December, 2024? Yes, the Kedarnath valley, too, witnessed a similar blockage last August which changed the very face of Gaurikund. How can we ever forget the very many landslides each monsoon in the Lonavala/Khandala region?
Why are such disasters looming large across the world? Due to human intervention which disturbs fragile ecologies? Due to global warming? Due to the blitzes in the Sun surface? How about the constant earthquakes quite high on the richter scale? Remember, in Greece and Italy, villages had to he hence evacuated?
Those who believe in the apocalypse are sure to predict the end of the world. Why, the Japanese version of Baba Venga has produced a strip of an impending tsunami like disaster in July which has already affected tourism there. Apparently, the entire American east coast may any time suffer a tsunami with a surge of a thousand feet water wall!
Well, seismic activities due to tectonic shifts are difficult to be definitively predicted despite the advancements in science and technology. The only answer hence to such disastrous worries is to every day live life fully, happily, wisely and humanely. None knows which would be the last one, right?
Pratima@ Despite such gloomy news, there is a silver lining. India, it seems, is the fourth largest economy in the world, surpassing Japan!
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