DROUGHTS

                             Drought is unusual dryness of soil, resulting in crop failure and shortage of water for other uses, caused by significantly lower rainfall than average over a prolonged period. Hot dry winds, high temperatures and consequent evaporation of moisture from the ground can contribute to conditions of drought.

BLIZZARDS

          Blizzards are severe winter storms characterized by heavy snow and strong winds. When high winds stir up snow that has already fallen, it is known as a ground blizzard. Blizzards can impact local economic activities, especially in regions where snowfall is rare.

 

 

 

 

FLOODS

           

                     A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water.In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries.While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless the water covers land used by man like a village, city or other inhabited area, roads, expanses of farmland, etc.

 

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

 

                 VOLCANOES can cause widespread destruction and consequent disaster in several ways. The effects include the volcanic eruption itself that may cause harm following the explosion of the volcano or the fall of rock. Second, lava may be produced during the eruption of a volcano. As it leaves the volcano, the lava destroys many buildings and plants it encounters. Third, volcanic ash generally meaning the cooled ash - may form a cloud, and settle thickly in nearby locations.

 

EARTHQUAKES

                       An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration, shaking and sometimes displacement of the ground. The vibrations may vary in magnitude. Earthquakes are caused mostly by slippage within geological faults, but also by other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the focus. The point directly above the focus on the surface is called the epicenter. 

                       Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. It is usually the secondary events that they trigger, such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis (seismic sea waves) and volcanoes, that are actually the human disaster. Many of these could possibly be avoided by better construction, safety systems, early warning and planning. Some of the most significant earthquakes in recent times include: The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, the third largest earthquake recorded in history,registering a moment magnitude of 9.1-9.3. The huge tsunamis triggered by this earthquake killed at least 229,000 people.

 

   
NATURAL DISASTER  

                           A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples include floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic processes. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage, and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the affected population's resilience, or ability to recover.

                            

 

 

Human Elephant conflict in Sri Lanka

               Damages to humans, crops and properties of the forest adjacent communities by the wild elephants and killings elephants back by humans have been reported consistently over the last several centuries in Sri Lanka. However, today the human elephant conflict has come to its climax due to rapid increase of population of humans as well as elephants.

                The human population of Sri Lanka has increased by 150% during the last 6

decades (1950-2010) while wild elephant population has increased by 300% during the same period as a result of effective conservation measures taken by the DWLC (Census and Statistics Department of Sri Lanka, 2009; Department of Wildlife Life Conservation 2008).

            Presently, farmers of the forest belts, the government agencies and many other non governmental development agencies are desperately looking for a sustainable solution for human elephant conflict as it has become one of the crucial constraints in enhancing the living conditions of the people of the forest belts. Moreover, intensified human elephant conflict has undermined almost all measures taken by the DWLC to protect wild elephants and it has become the prime cause for elephant deaths in the country today.

                Elephants are restricted mostly to the lowlands in the dry zone where they are still fairly widespread in north, south, east, north-western,north-central and south-eastern Sri Lanka.During the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, elephants were maimed or killed by land mines.Today, given the rarity of tuskers in Sri Lanka, poaching for ivory is not a major threat. Nevertheless, some trade in ivory still goes on. Kandy has been identified as the centre for such illegal trade. 

               The greatest threat to elephants comes from an expanding human population and its demand for land. Loss of significant extents of elephant range to development continues currently, with a number of irrigation and development projects leading to the conversion of more elephant ranges to irrigated agriculture and settlements.