The major difference between the ancient and modern eras in world history lies in the great tragedies that mankind faced during those eras. In ancient times, natural disasters and epidemics posed a great threat to mankind. It is assumed that the end of the Indus Valley Culture of Harappa and Mohan Jadaro was the result of a natural disaster such as a flood. The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, struck Europe, Africa, and Asia from 1346 AD to 1353 AD, killing 200 million people. This is also the greatest pandemic in human history. The flea-borne epidemic is believed to have originated in the Tianshan mountain range on the border of Kyrgyzstan and China.
It was spread by rats on merchant ships bound for the Crimea and spread to all three continents. The Spanish flu that spread all over the world in 1918 was ten times more severe than the Covid pandemic that swept the world in the 21st century. The flu, caused by the H1N1 virus, claimed the lives of 50 million people worldwide, including in the Americas, between 1918 and 1921, when no vaccines or antibiotics were available. This pandemic is the greatest epidemic in modern times. The World Health Organization has said that only the Covid pandemic has spread across the world and claimed the lives of five million people. There are great similarities between the Spanish flu and Covid.
World War I begins in 1918, at the same time as the Spanish Flu. So the Great War and the Pestilence attacked Europe together. There were many deaths that could not be distinguished from war or the flu. Thousands of children and women died because of the war without treatment. A flu broke out in army camps and many soldiers died. It is estimated that 21 million people died in World War I. World War I is the most man-made disaster in the modern era, killing 21 million people. In the 20th century, after epidemics, wars took the most lives. They are all man-made. World War II, which began in 1939 and lasted until 1945 after a brief hiatus after World War I, claimed the lives of over 55 million people. Even before World War II, the Nazis killed 20 million Jews between 1933 and 1945. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 and the Vietnam War from 1959 to 1975.
The Gulf War of 1991, Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq War in 2003, mass killings by terrorist groups like ISIS all over the world, and most recently the ethnic riots in Sudan, are man-made disasters that are taking human life in the 20th and 21st centuries. Our little Kerala is a region that is not directly affected by any of these wars or epidemics except covid. A land blessed by nature. A land of rivers, fresh water bodies, lakes, seas and evergreen forests. Boating accidents are the leading man-made disaster in our country. The first thing that comes to our memory is the accident that happened in Pallanayat on January 16, 1924. 23 people, including Mahakavi Kumaranashan, succumbed to their deaths when the boat Redeemer capsized. There were 145 passengers in that boat. Kerala lost Kumaranashan, a great poet and social reformer who saw Malayalam. There have been 15 major boat accidents since the formation of Kerala state.
In August 2015, 11 people died in an accident in Fort Kochi, in 2002 in Kumarakat, 29 people died in an accident, in 2007, 18 people died in Thattekad, in 2009, 45 people died in Thekkady, and now in 2023, 23 people died in Tanur. A total of 317 people lost their lives in boat accidents. After the Kumarakam boat accident, under the leadership of Justice Narayana Kurup, after the Thattekad accident, under the leadership of Justice Parit Pillai, after the Thekkady boat accident, under the leadership of Justice E. All the commissions appointed earlier had found that the causes of the accident were not enough security for the boats, carrying more than the specified number of people, the boat crews not having the necessary technical knowledge, and the boats not having the necessary life jackets and suggested solutions. But when we reach the boat accident in Tanur, we see that it is an old fishing boat that was used for the pleasure trip, and the boat, which can accommodate a maximum of 20 people, was built and carried more than 40 people including the second floor, and the boat’s hull did not have a license. It is high time that the authorities concerned should wake up and act to stop such acts of complete negligence and loss of human life without following any rules. It is high time that such criminals stop playing with precious human lives. The tragedy that happened in Tanur should not happen again.
English Sammury: Man-made disasters- by k dhileep’s column
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2023-05-16 22:30:23
