Key facts

  • Article 21, Article 48A and Article 51A(g) support India’s environmental-risk governance frame.
  • The Disaster Management Act, 2005 builds NDMA, SDMA, DDMA, NDRF and disaster planning architecture.
  • About 59% of India is earthquake-vulnerable; BIS zoning uses Zones II, III, IV and V.
  • South Lhonak 2023 is a GLOF-cascade example linking glacier retreat, lake breach, hydropower and downstream flood risk.
  • ISRO’s 2023 Landslide Atlas reports about 80,000 mapped landslides across vulnerable Himalayan and Western Ghats regions.

Key Points at a Glance

  1. 1

    Hazard, exposure and vulnerability are different; disaster is the serious disruption produced when capacity is exceeded.

  2. 2

    Article 21, Article 48A and Article 51A(g) support India’s environmental-risk governance frame.

  3. 3

    The Disaster Management Act, 2005 builds NDMA, SDMA, DDMA, NDRF and disaster planning architecture.

  4. 4

    About 59% of India is earthquake-vulnerable; BIS zoning uses Zones II, III, IV and V.

  5. 5

    Cyclone risk depends on ocean heat, wind shear, surge, tide, landfall geometry and coastal exposure.

  6. 6

    South Lhonak 2023 is a GLOF-cascade example linking glacier retreat, lake breach, hydropower and downstream flood risk.

  7. 7

    ISRO’s 2023 Landslide Atlas reports about 80,000 mapped landslides across vulnerable Himalayan and Western Ghats regions.

  8. 8

    Geographic features in news must be revised through location, process, economic use and strategic relevance.

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Scope, definitions and legal frame

This topic is not a loose list of disasters. In Prelims it tests whether a candidate can connect a news event to the physical process, the map location, the risk-management law and the socio-economic consequence.

  • Geophysical phenomena: earthquakes, volcanism, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, droughts, landslides, avalanches, glacial lake outburst floods, storm surges, heatwaves and coastal erosion. They are physical processes, but the exam often asks why exposure became a disaster.
  • Geographic features in news: straits, bays, trenches, ridges, island arcs, passes, river basins, deltas, coasts, coral reefs, deserts, mountain chains, mineral belts, national parks and urban-risk locations. The feature must be read through relative location, plate setting, climate, drainage and economic use.
  • Conceptual distinction: a hazard is a potentially damaging event; exposure is people, assets or ecosystems in its path; vulnerability is the weakness that converts hazard into loss; disaster is the serious disruption that exceeds ordinary coping capacity.
  • Constitutional basis: Article 21 supports the right-to-life frame used in environmental and disaster-risk litigation; Article 48A asks the State to protect environment, forests and wildlife; Article 51A(g) makes environmental protection a citizen duty.
  • Seventh Schedule hooks: List I includes Entry 54 on regulation of mines and mineral development under Union control, Entry 56 on inter-State rivers, and Entry 57 on fishing beyond territorial waters. List II includes Entry 17 on water and Entry 18 on land. List III includes Entry 17A on forests, Entry 17B on wildlife, and Entry 20 on economic and social planning.
  • Statutory anchors: the Environment Protection Act, 1986 enables broad environmental notifications; the Disaster Management Act, 2005 creates national, state and district disaster architecture; the Dam Safety Act, 2021 matters for reservoir-linked flood risk; CRZ Notification, 2019 regulates development along sensitive coasts.
  • Case-law caution: M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, 1986, is remembered for absolute liability in hazardous industries; Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India, 1996, accepted precautionary principle and polluter-pays principle as part of Indian environmental law; Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India, 2000, shows the development-versus-environment balancing problem around large dams.
  • Exam approach: start from process, then map, then legal-institutional frame, then human geography. A cyclone question may be climatology, coastal regulation, fisheries and urban planning at the same time.
  • Source discipline: for news-linked geography, separate stable physical laws from changing administrative facts. Plate boundaries, Coriolis force and moraine-dam failure are stable; cyclone category, warning status, evacuation number and project clearance require a dated official source.

Open the complete note

This public page shows the first available section. The study pack opens the complete topic with all revision material.

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PredictedPredicted Questions

Use these prompts to test answer structure before moving to practice.

1MCQConsider the following statements about hazards and disasters: 1. A hazard necessarily becomes a disaster once it occurs. 2. Exposure and vulnerability influence the scale of losses. 3. Capacity can reduce disaster risk even when the physical hazard cannot be stopped. Which statements are correct?1 marks · 50 words
  1. A1 and 2 only
  2. B2 and 3 onlyCorrect
  3. C1 and 3 only
  4. D1, 2 and 3

Explanation

Statement 1 is wrong because hazard requires exposure, vulnerability and capacity failure to become disaster. Statements 2 and 3 are correct.

~50 words · 1 marks