×

UPSC Courses

DNA banner

DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Monthly DNA

08 Jan, 2024

24 Min Read

Tsunami in JAPAN

GS-I : Physical Geography Tsunami

Tsunami waves hit several parts of Japan’s coastal areas and urgent evacuation warnings were issued after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook the country’s north-central region.

What is Tsunami?

Tsunami– A Japanese word meaning harbour wave.

    • Tsu – harbour; nami - wave.

It is a series of giant ocean waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions under the ocean.

Submarine earthquakes have generated about 80% of all tsunami events recorded globally.

Scientific Basis of Tsunami – Earthquake based

  • Movement of plates – The Earth's lithosphere is broken up into a bunch of discrete pieces, called plates and there are 7 or 8 major plates and many minor plates.
  • These plates move around the surface of the planet which are driven by the flow of the mantle rock beneath the plates and by the forces plates exert at their boundaries where they touch each other.
  • Earthquakes – Movement of plates with respect to each other causes friction and stress at the edges thus causing earthquakes.
  • Tsunami – When 1 plate is forced to dive beneath another plate, there is no way to do it except with some component of vertical motion creating tsunami.
  • Tsunamis are often incorrectly called tidal waves and have no relation to the daily ocean tides.

Physical attributes

    • It can be 100’s of feet tall.
    • It can travel as fast as jet planes over deep waters.
    • It slows down the travel speed on reaching shallow waters.
    • It has a long wavelength and period (time between crests) which can vary from a few minutes to over an hour.

The wavelength is a factor which distinguishes tsunamis from wind waves, a tsunami wavelength can be more than 200 km long which is considerably longer than a wind wave wavelength.

Lifetime of a tsunami – It can be divided into 3 stages namely generation, propagation, and run-up.

The power of a tsunami – It is highly dependent on 2 factors.

    • The tide – At high tide the tsunami will be able to do much more damage than at low tide.
    • Seafloor morphology – It alters the tsunami height by changing the ratio between their wavelength and wave height.
    • In general, this ratio decreases as the wave travels into shallower water, causing the tsunami to grow in size.
  • Sea depth - As the sea depth decreases, the wavelength decreases and the height increases.
  • Size – It is also influenced by the topography of the coastline.
  • Numbers – There may be more than one wave and the succeeding one may be larger than the one before.
  • That is why a small tsunami at one beach can be a giant wave few kilometres away.

What are factors responsible for the occurrence of Tsunami?

  • Earthquake tsunami – When earthquake occurs under the ocean, a large chunk of the ocean floor can suddenly move upward or downward, leading to a sudden displacement of a large volume of water, thereby causing tsunami waves.
  • All earthquakes do not cause tsunamis and there 4 conditions necessary for it to cause a tsunami.

Conditions for an earthquake to cause Tsunami

  • It must occur beneath the ocean or cause the material to slide into the ocean.
  • It must be strong, at least magnitude 6.5 on the Richter Scale
  • It must rupture the Earth’s surface and it must occur at shallow depth – less than 70km below the surface of the Earth.
  • It must cause vertical movement of the seafloor (up to several meters).
  • Volcano tsunami– When volcano erupts under the sea, the lava flowing out of the volcano displaces the water around it and that water can become a large wave.
  • However, not all volcanic eruptions lead to tsunamis.
  • Erosion tsunami – Large erosion of ocean floor displaces the water leading to displacement of water.
  • Extra-terrestrial collision– Although no meteor/asteroid induced tsunami has been recorded in recent history, if they strike the ocean, a large volume of water would be displaced to cause a tsunami.
  • Landslide tsunami – A landslide along the coast and underwater landslides can also disturb the water and generate a tsunami.The tsunamis generated tend to be relatively localized and typically do less damage than the earthquake generated tsunamis.

What are the effects of tsunami on life and economy?

  • The effects of a tsunami depend on the characteristics of the seismic event that generate it
    • The distance from its point of origin
    • Its size (magnitude)
    • The configuration of the bathymetry (the depth of water in oceans) along the coast.
  • Loss of Life – Most deaths caused by tsunamis are because of drowning.
  • Flooding – They arrive as forceful rapid increase in water levels that results in violent flooding.
  • Diseases – Illnesses such as malaria arise when water is stagnant and contaminated.
  • Damages to key infrastructures – Objects and buildings are destroyed by the sheer weight of the water, often reduced to skeletal foundations and exposed bedrock.
  • Fires – Ruptured tanks or gas lines can damage life and property along with power supply.
  • Environmental impacts – It has devastating effect on insects, animals, plants, and natural resources.
  • Changes the landscape – By uprooting trees and plants and destroys animal habitats such as nesting sites for birds.
  • Waste management issues – It dumps enormous solid waste and disaster debris.
  • Salination of water bodies – Infiltration of sea water into freshwater bodies.
  • Contamination of drinking water – Seawater along with carried debris contaminate groundwater and other water bodies.
  • Radiation issue – There may be radiation resulting from damage to nuclear plants, as it happened in Japan in March 2011.
  • Economical losses – Reconstruction and clean up after a tsunami has costs huge.
  • Psychological effects – Victims of tsunami events often suffer psychological problems like PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

What are risks and vulnerability of India with respect to Tsunami?

India is one of the 10 worst disaster prone countries in the world.

  • Vulnerability profile – Of the 7516 km long coastline, close to 5700 km is prone to tsunamis.
  • The geo-centric movement inside the ocean floor makes the coastal region prone to tsunami.
  • Tsunamigenic zones in Indian Coast - Both the east and west coasts of India and the island regions are likely to be affected by tsunamis from the 5 potential source regions
    • The Andaman-Nicobar Sumatra island arc
    • Indo-Burmese zone,
    • Nascent Boundary (in the central Indian Ocean)
    • Chagos archipelago
    • Makran subduction zone
  • Urbanization increases vulnerability – For instance, about 25% of the Indian population lives within 50 km of the coastal line and these people are vulnerable to river flooding, and coastal surges following cyclones or tsunamis.
  • Tsunami in Indian Ocean occurred on 26th December 2004, the hardest hit areas were on the Southern coast of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Why is Japan prone to earthquakes and tsunamis?

  • Location – It is situated along the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, the most active earthquake tectonic belt in the world.
  • Within the Ring of Fire, there are different tectonic belts, which keep meshing and colliding with each other, causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.
  • In 2011, Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake accompanied by a tsunami leading to a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant, the most severe nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union.

What are the mechanisms for preparedness to reduce the risk as per NDMA?

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)

  • Established by – NDMA Act 2005.
  • Role – The apex body for Disaster Management (DM) in India.
  • It is mandated to lay down the policies, plans and guidelines for disaster management for timely and effective response to disasters.
  • Headed by - Prime Minister of India.
  • Awareness generation – State and District Disaster Management Authority (SDMAs & DDMAs) will conduct regular public awareness campaigns for familiarising communities in coastal areas with the tsunami early warning mechanisms.
  • Early warnings - Effective dissemination of tsunami alert and warning messages to the concerned agencies and coastal vulnerable communities.

Indian National Centre of Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is the Nodal agency for Tsunami related early warning system.

  • Capacity building – It involves effective emergency response by involving local police network, civil defence volunteers, home guards, State and National Disaster Response Force.
  • Education – NDMA has initiated the efforts in collaboration with nodal agencies like the UGC, AICTE, MCI, ICAR, etc. to include DM in the educational curricula.
  • TrainingNational Institute of Disaster Management at the national level have been tasked to train administrative personnel from all Ministries and departments in DM.
  • Research & development - For better tsunami risk management.
  • Structural Mitigation measures – A brief guidance on design and construction of new structures as well as strategies for protecting lifeline and priority structures from Tsunamis.
  • Techno-legal regime – It shall be brought through efficient land use practices, bio shields, shelter belt plantation and mangrove regeneration with community involvement.
  • Further, it explore the provisions of Disaster Management Act 2005 to mainstream concern of Tsunami risk management in disaster management plans of various levels.

India’s relief operation aftermath of Tsunami

  • Maldives – Under “Operation Castor”, 4 aircraft and 2 Naval ships were engaged in relief operations, after the 2004 Tsunami.
  • Sri Lanka – Under Operation Rainbow, India sent its forces to carry out rescue operations, after the 2004 Tsunami.

Source:

Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956

GS-II : Governance Law and Order

Recently the Kerala High Court ruled that a customer in a brothel can be charged under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

What is the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956?

Human trafficking – Forced or illegal transfer of people for the purpose of labour or other illegal activities.

Under Article 23 (1) of Indian constitution, trafficking in human beings or persons is prohibited in India.

Passed in – 1956, as All India Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act (SITA) in pursuance of the International Convention signed by India in 1950, for the prevention of immoral traffic.

Objective – To prevent the commercialisation of vices and the trafficking of females.

Amendment Act of 1986 – It has amended the title to ‘Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act’ and replaced the words ‘Women and Girls’ with the word ‘Persons’.

  • It now prohibits traffic in human beings and not traffic in women and girls alone and a framework to inhibit or abolish commercialized traffic in persons.
  • It provides for rehabilitating those rescued from the vice.

Definition – Section 2 of the act defines both ‘brothel’ and ‘prostitution’.

Brothel – It includes any house, room, or place, or any portion of any house, room or place, which is used for purposes [of sexual exploitation or abuse] for the gain of another person or for the mutual gain of two or more prostitutes.

Prostitution – It is defined as the sexual exploitation, or abuse of persons, for commercial purposes.

Special police officer – There shall be for each area to be specified appointed by or on behalf of state government who shall not be below the rank of an Inspector of Police.

Protective home – An institution where people in need of care and protection are kept.

Corrective institution – An institution where a person in need of correction or reformation may be detained but no victim can be sent to a corrective institution against her wishes if she is an adult.

Punishment – It penalises acts such as

    • Keeping a brothel
    • Soliciting in a public place
    • Living off the earnings of sex work
    • Living with or habitually being in the company of a sex worker

Section 5 of the act deals with punishments.

    • For procuring or attempting to procure a person, with or without their consent, for prostitution purposes.
    • For inducing persons to go from any place, for prostitution purposes, to become inmates of, or frequent, a brothel.

Imprisonment – Inducing persons to engage in prostitution is punishable with rigorous imprisonment for 3–7 years, along with Rs 2,000 fine and if it is committed against their will, the maximum sentence can be extended to 14 years or life.

What is the current case?

  • Petitioner – A customer in a brothel, was arrested and accused of offences under the ITP Act’s different sections like
    • 3 – Keeping a brothel or allowing premises to be used as one.
    • 4 – Living on prostitution earnings
    • 5 – Procuring, inducing, or taking persons for prostitution
    • 7 – Punishing prostitution in or around public places

Petitioner’s plea – He shall not be implicated for any offence under the ITP Act.

    • Section 15(5) and 15(5A) mandate producing the offender before the magistrate, and their medical examination to determine age, sexually transmitted diseases (if any), and injuries caused due to sexual abuse.

District court ruling – It rejected the plea of petitioner and directed that charges be framed against him.

Kerala HC ruling – While the term “procure” isn’t defined in the 1956 Act, the court construed the word to mean those getting or obtaining “domain over a person” for prostitution.

  • It concluded that a consumer also comes within the purview of Section 5 and held that a customer can be charged under it.
  • However, the petitioner was discharged of offences under Sections 3, 4, and 7 by the High Court.

Significance of the ruling – By adding that a customer will be held liable in addition to pimps/brothel-keepers who hire persons for prostitution.

Prosecution of customers

  • Mathew vs the State of Kerala, 2022– A customer caught in a brothel can be prosecuted under the ITP Act.
  • Section 7(1) of the Act – It penalises
    • The person who carries on prostitution
    • The person with whom such prostitution is carried on
  • The HC also said that the act of immoral traffic cannot be perpetrated or carried on without a customer.

Against the prosecution of customers

  • The Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka HCs in Goenka Sajan Kumar vs The State of AP (2014) and Sri Sanaulla vs State Of Karnataka (2017) ruled against prosecuting brothel customers under sections 3-7 of the ITP Act.

Source:

Wetland City Accreditation

GS-III : Biodiversity & Environment Biodiversity & Environment

Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has submitted three nominations from India for Wetland City Accreditation (WCA) of Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) & Udaipur (Rajasthan) under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

WCA – A voluntary scheme that recognizes cities which have taken exceptional steps to safeguard their urban wetlands.

Establishment – During the Ramsar Convention COP12, 2015.

Objectives – To recognize the importance of wetlands in urban and peri-urban environments and to take appropriate measures to conserve and protect these wetlands.

Significance – Cities can gain international recognition and positive branding opportunities for their efforts and provides sustainable socio-economic benefits for local populations.

It will generate public awareness about wetland conservation and also help in implementation of Amrit Dharohar in India which aims to foster sustainable ecosystem development with the help of local communities.

About Wetland City Accreditation:

  • The Ramsar Convention during COP12 held in the year 2015 approved a voluntary Wetland City Accreditation system.
  • It recognizes cities which have taken exceptional steps to safeguard their urban wetlands.
  • It also recognizes the importance of wetlands in urban and peri-urban environments and to take appropriate measures to conserve and protect these wetlands.
  • This voluntary scheme provides an opportunity for cities that value their natural or human-made wetlands to gain international recognition and positive publicity for their efforts.
  • This scheme aims to further promote the conservation and wise use of urban and peri-urban wetlands, as well as sustainable socio-economic benefits for local populations.
  • To be formally accredited, a candidate for WCA should satisfy the standards used to implement each of the six international criteria mentioned in Operational Guidance for WCA of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
  • Since Ramsar COP13, 43 cities from 17 countries have been officially recognized as “Wetland Cities”.

Indore

Bhopal

Udaipur

Location

Madhya Pradesh

Bihar

Rajasthan


Ramsar Site
(or)
Wetland

Sirpur Lake, a bird sanctuary

Bhoj Wetland with Jal Tarang (wetland interpretation centre)

5 wetlands –Pichola
Fateh Sagar Rang Sagar Swaroop Sagar Doodh Talai

Efforts & Recognitions

-Wetland mitras for Sarus Crane.

-Cleanest city in India.

-India’s Smart City Award 2023.

-Wetland mitras for Sarus Crane.
-Lake Conservation Cell

-Draft City Development Plan 2031

6 Criteria for getting WEA

  • It has one or more Ramsar Sites, or other significant wetlands which provide(s) a range of ecosystem services to the city;
  • It has adopted measures for conservation of wetlands.
  • It has implemented wetland restoration measures.
  • It considers the challenges and opportunities of integrated spatial/land-use planning for wetlands under its jurisdiction.
  • It has raised public awareness about the values of wetlands and enabled public participation in decision-making processes.
  • It has established a local committee to support the preparation work and the implementation of measures.

Source: pib

Plasma waves

GS-III : S&T Space

The researchers at Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) have examined the existence of high-frequency plasma waves in the Martian plasma environment.

IIG is an autonomous institute of Department of Science and Technology.

  • Plasma waves – A type of electromagnetic wave that propagates through plasma, a state of matter.

Plasma is formed when a gas is heated to high temperatures or subjected to strong electric fields, causing its atoms to become ionised by either losing or gaining electrons.

  • In earth – It is observed in the Earth’s magnetosphere as a short-time scale fluctuations in the electric and magnetic field.
  • Role – In the energization and transport of the charged particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere.
  • Some act as a cleaning agent for the Earth’s radiation belt, which is hazardous to our satellites.
    • Example: Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves

Plasma waves in Mars

  • Recent Study – It was carried out by IIG scientists in collaboration with scientists from Japan, USA, and UAE to understand the existence of plasma waves in unmagnetized planets like Mars.

Mars does not have any intrinsic magnetic field therefore the high-speed solar wind coming from the Sun interacts directly with the Mars atmosphere, like an obstacle in the flow.

  • Observation – By using high-resolution electric field data from the MAVEN spacecraft of NASA when it crossed the magnetopause boundary and entered the magnetosheath region.
  • Cause – It could be due to electron oscillations with respect to the background magnetic field in the magnetosheath region of the Mars.
    • Langmuir waves – Parallel oscillations
    • Upper-hybrid type waves – Perpendicular oscillations
  • 2 distinct wave modes – Either broadband or narrowband type with distinguishable features in the frequency domain.
  • Significance – It provides a tool to explore how electrons gain or dissipate energy in the Martian plasma environment.

Source: pib

National Youth Award 2024

GS-I : Art and Culture Awards & Honours

  • Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has selected Bisathi Bharat of Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh for the National Youth Award (NYA) recently.

It is an award conferred annually to individuals and voluntary organisations serving in the arena of youth development.

Source:

South Coast Railway Zone

GS-III : Economic Issues Railways

  • The South Coast Railway (SCoR) Zone is India's 18th railway zone, and its headquarters are in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

It was announced in 2019 and still not started yet.

Source:

Amendment of Central Civil Services Rules, 2021

GS-II : Governance Governance

  • The Union government has now amended the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules of 2021.
  • It is to allow women government servants and pensioners to nominate their children for receiving family pension over their spouse.
  • Conditions – At the time of the women’s death, any proceedings for divorce, domestic violence, or dowry demands happen to be pending against the said spouse.

Till now, the rules provided for the family pension to first go to the surviving spouse and the children became eligible to receive it only after the death of the spouse.

Source:

Other Related News

07 January,2024
Supreme Court Judgments in 2023

The Supreme Court has delivered several landmark judgments in 2023. S.No Name of the Case Judgement 1 Vivek Narayan Sharma v. Union of India Upheld the decision taken by the Union Government to d

Global Nuclear Order and Geopolitics

The Global Nuclear Order refers to the international system, agreements, norms, and structures that govern and regulate the use, possession, proliferation, and control of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy worldwide. It encompasses a complex network of treaties, agreements, and norms that have ev

Indian Railways in 2023 – Year Review

The Performance of Indian Railways in 2023 showed significant strides in infrastructure but reveals underwhelming freight loading and financial performance. How Indian Railways performed in 2023? Near completion of DFC – Dedicated Freight Corridors are nearing completion with&nbs

Ministry of Minority Affairs-Year review

The Ministry was carved out of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment in 2006. Objective- To ensure a more focused approach towards issues relating to the notified minority communities - Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikhs, Parsis and Jain. As per Census 2011, around 19.3% of the populati

The Kharsawan massacre of 1948

The Kharsawan massacre occurred on January 1, 1948 in the town of Kharsawan, which is now part of Jharkhand. The massacre was similar to the Jallianwala Bagh incident in 1919. The massacre occurred during a protest against the merger of Kharsawan with Odisha. Pol

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki is a mountain in Indonesia. It is part of the Lewotobi twin volcano, which is located in the southeastern part of Flores Island. The Lewotobi twin volcano is made up of the Lewotobi Laki-Laki (male) and Lewotobi Perempuan (female) stratovolcanoes, with summi

06 January,2024
Credit Rating Agencies and INDIA

Recently, India released a document titled ‘Re-examining Narratives: A Collection of Essays’ to present alternate perspectives on economic policy that have long-term implications for India’s growth and development priorities. What are credit rating agencies? Credit Rating Age

Regulation of Virtual Digital Asset

Recently, the Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND) issued show-cause notices to 9 offshore virtual digital asset service providers (VDA SPs) like Bitfinex and MEXC Global, among others. What is FIU-IND? Established in – 2004 under the Finance Ministry. Aim – T

Water Governance

Water Governance poses one of the biggest challenges in modern-day India that looks out for definitive solutions. Every place and every community have their unique stories and problems associated with water, wherein the governance addresses complications of the governor than the be

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – YEAR REVIEW

The Ministry is charged with health policy in India, which is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India. Departments Department of Health and Family Welfare Department of Health Research Union Minister- Mansukh L. Mandaviya Hea

Seperate Toilets for women in district courts

Nearly 1/5th of the district courts in India lack separate toilets for women, according to a report published by the Centre for Research and Planning of the Supreme Court recently. The Centre for Research and Planning will serve as a bridge between academic research,

PM Vishwakarma

Jammu and Kashmir has become the first Union Territory (UT) to implement the PM Vishwakarma Yojana (PMVY) recently. It is an initiative that aims to empower and enhance the skills of the craftsman community (Vishwakarmas). 18 traditional trades will be covered in the first instan

Toppers

Search By Date

Newsletter Subscription
SMS Alerts

Important Links

UPSC GS Mains Crash Course - RAW Prelims Answer Key 2024