When Shit Hits The Fan (SHTF)

We live in India. A 32,87,590 sq km country populated by 1,21,01,93,444 people with 378 people living in each square kilometre of land. The seventh largest country in the world by area, the second largest by population and the third largest by purchasing power parity. India has got everything that the rest of the world has got – glaciers, mountains, deserts, salt flats, tropical jungles, mangrove forests, three oceans and countless rivers. The Himalayas are the source for much of the fresh water that is essential for survival.

Yet India lies in an extremely fragile eco sensitive zone. Earthquakes are frequent. We hear about floods every monsoon where people are uprooted, houses washed away, fatalities reported. The changing climatic condition is bringing on weird situations with rain in the desert and cloudbursts where none existed before. Landslides and avalanches are aplenty. Roads get washed away, rockfalls take away vehicles, mudslides wash away entire villages.

Yes, shit hits the fan quite often and quite regularly in India. But it takes a tragedy such as the one in Kedarnath and Uttarakhand in 2013 for us to realise how grave the situation can be. And then comes Hurricane Phailin and we find that proper planning and preparation can actually save lives. A look at the year of 2013 shows us how devastating and unfortunate natural calamities can be. And people die with frightening regularity.

Jan 19     Mudslide in Bangalore killed one. 

Jan 22     Avalanche in Sangla valley killed 35 yaks.

Jan 31     Hailstorm killed 9 people in Chevella, Moinabad and Shankarpally.

Feb 3       Avalanche in Dehradun killed two people.

Feb 6       Seven people died in avalanche in Kinnaur.

Feb 6       Hailstorms killed one and damaged 80 villages of MP.

Feb 25     Rains and thundershowers in UP killed two.

Mar 2       5.5 magnitude earthquake.

Mar 12     Landslide in Uttarkashi killed 10 pilgrims.

Mar 13     Landslide in Bijbehara killed 15 year old girl.

Mar 17     Lightning strike in MP kills 12.

Mar 18     At least twelve injured by severe thunderstorm and tornado in Odisha.

Mar 27     Hailstorm in Assam injured six people.

Mar 30     4.5 magnitude earthquake shook Bhuj.

Mar 30     Lightning strikes in UP claimed eight lives.

Apr 9       Landslide on Jammu-Srinagar highway killed one person.

Apr 11     Cyclonic storm in Meghalaya claimed three lives and injured more than 50.

Apr 15     Chhattisgarh dust storm claimed six lives.

Apr 16     Avalanche in Kashmir claimed three lives.

Apr 16     Earthquake in Assam kills one, injures 3.

Apr 17     Hailstorms in Balasore injures at least three.

Apr 18     Storm in Kolkata claimed three lives including a three-year-old girl.

Apr 27     Mudslide in Zojila claimed one life.

May 1      Strong earthquake in Kashmir.

May 1      Lightning in Assam’s Chirang district injured nineteen people.

May 2      Cyclone in West Khasi Hills claimed life of at least one person and injured 25 others.

May 9      Cyclonic storms in Tripura claims seven.

May 9      Hailstorm damaged 200 houses in Mizoram.

May 11    Landslide in Mizoram claimed lives of ten people with seven reported missing.

May 12    Mild thunderstorm and hailstorm in Sheikhpura claimed at least three lives.

May 13    Cyclonic storm Mahasen causes heavy rains in Chennai; three injured.

May 21    Heat claimed three lives in Odisha.

May 26    Heavy rainfall caused flooding and landslide in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir valley.

Jun 5       Bihar lightning strikes claimed lives of at least 27 people.

Jun 11     Flash floods in Udhampur and Poonch claimed life of at least one person.

Jun 12     Landslide en route Vaishno Devi claimed life of one woman pilgrim.

Jun 12     Assam heat wave kills six.

Jun 13     15,000 tourists stranded along Rishikesh-Gangotri Highway, following landslide.

Jun 19     Massive flooding and mudslides at Kedarnath claimed at least 50 lives.

Jun 24     Flash flood in Kalahandi district affects nearly 15,000 people.

Jul 3        Major landslide near Goa check post.

Jul 4        Assam flood claims one, washes 300 villages.

Jul 4        Karnataka flash floods claim lives of six.

Jul 10      Landslide at Antop Hill in Mumbai claimed at least two lives and critically injured one.

Jul 12      Landslide in Nainital claimed six lives.

Jul 12      Flash floods in Odisha and Hyderabad claimed at least three lives; two missing.

Jul 12      Flooded Kosi claimed lives of ten people including nine kids.

Jul 18      Floods in AP, UP claims nine lives and displaced thousands of people.

Aug 1      Landslide disaster in Uttarakhand claimed lives of at least nine people.

Aug 2      Earthquake shakes HP, Punjab, Haryana.

Aug 5      Floods in Chandrapur district in Maharashtra claimed lives of at least 20.

Aug 5      Kerala landslide claimed at least nine lives.

Aug 14    Five women killed after being struck by lightning in in Kaushambi.

Aug 15    J&K floods claimed lives of at least ten people including four children.

Aug 16    Heavy rain in J&K claims two women.

Aug 22    Odisha flood kills 2, displaces 1,000.

Sep 3      Landslide in Sikkim claimed lives of five people including four of a single family.

Sep 14     Hail storm in Chennai, 3rd time in 5 years!

Sep 17     Lightning in Odisha, India claimed lives of at least 11 people and injured 15 others.

Sep 25     40,000 evacuated amid Gujarat flooding

We Indians pride ourselves for our equanimity. We believe in fate and destiny and karma. We would much rather leave our fate and future in the hands of the unknown than take responsibility. I wonder why. Sure, karma probably has some deep scientific and spiritual meaning to face and tackle adversity that visit us. But is it a good idea to shift the entire cause and effect of our troubles on karma?

And not only natural disasters and calamities. People die for lack of proper first aid intervention in case of heart attacks, bleeding, choking, etc. People die unnecessarily in road accidents. Many believe that their heads are made of tempered steel and refuse to even consider the possibility of a helmet saving their life since accidents happen to other people. It takes the visual of a cop ahead to pull the seat belt across our chest.

The other day 24 kids from Hyderabad were swept away near Mandi, Himachal Pradesh when the dam opened the sluice gates and released water. It took seconds for the kids to be swept away and drown. People blamed the dam authorities for either not sounding the hooter or not sounding it loud enough to warn people downstream. Let us for a moment give them the benefit of doubt and assume that the hooter was sounded and was loud enough. Would the kids have made the connection? Would they have realised it for what it was – a warning for them to get the hell out? Probably not. They were on a holiday and were having fun, standing in the middle of a mountain river, standing together holding hands on a slippery rock, taking pictures to update their Facebook profiles. Did they even realise how dangerous the current of a mountain river can be? Even if the dam had not released water and someone slipped off the rock s/he was precariously perched on, the current can be strong enough to pull you under and in the panic one can die a very painful and unnecessary death.

Why do we not realise that we need to be prepared and equipped for the time when shit hits the fan? Why are we so nihilistic to believe that when the shit hits the fan we will be far, far away from its consequences?

Safety and security is not someone else’s problem. It is my life and my safety and my security and I have to ensure that I am prepared, trained and equipped to face a problem. But almost all the time, victims to get caught in a survival situation end up blaming the Government, the Police, the system, the infrastructure, the road network, the met department, the builders, the construction mafia, the sand mafia, whoever they can lay their eyes on. Sure, there are a lot of issues and a lot of things need to get sorted out, but can we at least try and help ourselves so that we do not get into a situation that can turn devastating? Can we train ourselves so that we are in a position to save a life when faced with a situation where a victim needs help and intervention and is seconds away from playing the harp up there in the Heavens? How many of us know how to administer CPR? How many of us know how to administer the Heimlich Manoeuvre? How many of us have even heard of the Recovery Position? How many of us know how to use the body’s pressure points to control arterial bleeding?

When caught up in what seems to be a hopeless situation, we lose all hope, the primary element that keeps us alive. We just give up and die. And watch others die. Sad. Sad. Sad.

Let us take a pledge to prepare, train and equip ourselves so that no live is lost due to negligence or apathy or lack of knowledge. Life is NOT cheap, however much we believe in destiny. Let us all prepare for the time when the shit hits the fan. And it will. When you least expect it.