I saw this thread only now and it is time to leave for me.Since the GD ends today I think I cannot participate now.

Better late than never. India can learn to cope with disasters with more ease by awareness programs from root level. It is impossible to depend on government for everything. Hence people can be trained to face disasters for themselves by conducting training programmes.

I think history has more or less proved that India is as yet not really prepared to deal with a natural disaster.

The very term 'natural disaster' implies that it's not something that can be anticipated much in advance. Our country has neither the resources nor even the inclination to prepare for something that might or might not happen. Our policy is more to focus on fixing the existing problems than working towards problems that might occur in the future. There are merits in this view of course. God knows we have enough existing problems to worry about!

What people doesn't seem to realise however, is that by preventing the problem from occuring in the first place, their burden will eventually get lighter, instead of just replacing one load with another.

I'd just like to add a personal experience as well.

Last friday Bangalore saw an unusual amount of rainfall. Not something that can be classified as a 'natural disaster' really, but it turned out to be quite disastrous for the people caught at the mercy of the storm.

The rain clearly demonstrated the pathetic drainage system. Bangalore has never really been a victim of flooding, but after seeing cars submerged and having to walk through knee deep water to get home, I find myself sympathizing with the people who go through these experiences more regularly.

One thing in particular I noticed was that people tend to panic when faced with something out of their control and instead of rationally thinking of a solution, just react. I saw some woman frantically filling buckets of water and throwing it on the other side of the road, not realising that the water would just flow down again anyway...

Perhaps educating people on how to deal with natural disasters would prove to be more beneficial, than expecting infrastructural changes to be made.

OK come on Pallavi.As a new member your entry to this contest is much appreciated.

Thanks! :) Enjoying being here.

Well, This is the first time something like this happened, at least I did not see it happening earlier!! An entire week's GD contest washed out with miserable participation.

When I floated the topic, I was expecting many people to share in their views and also some new information in terms of how the disaster is managed in their own cities and towns when floods strike! Almost every Indian city has faced this kind of situation at one or the other time which is why I was hoping that more discussions would come up.

But since none of the participants have entered more than a single reply barring Priya and Pallavi who came up with two posts, there are no qualifiers for the usual 50 points and no winners to be declared!! :( :( :(

I really really sincerely hope that this scenario does not repeat again!!

:(

As I came too late here due to the busy schedule of college activities.