Tackling nature's fury
Rukhsana Sayeed finds substance in a new work
Works on technical subjects written by Bangladeshi authors to be understood by the common man are hard to come by. But an exception is to be found in the book written by Dr A.M. Choudhury, former chairman of Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation (SPARRSO). He calls it Protecting Bangladesh from Natural Disasters. The author was trained in Applied Mathematics, Space Science, Theoretical Physics and Remote Sensing. The colossal loss of human lives to the tune of some 500,000 and immense destruction of property due to a devastating tropical cyclone in November 1970 deeply moved him and he shared with empathy the sorrow and misery of the tens of thousands of victims of the disaster. In the words of the author, he gave up a lucrative assignment abroad and decided to devote his research on tropical cyclones. He mastered the subject on his own. He became an associate of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) situated in Trieste, Italy; attended workshops on various kinds of disasters and organized similar workshops in Dhaka sponsored by ICTP (whose director was the Nobel Laureate Prof. Abdus Salam) and participated in by eminent international scientists. Choudhury's efforts paid off. He developed his own theory about the prediction of cyclone tracks for the Bangladesh coast. He termed it as the Rose Petal Theory. His forecast on tropical cyclones is almost unparalleled. He has the unique distinction of having briefed three prime ministers of Bangladesh on tropical cyclones --- Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. He is the recipient of Bangladesh's highest civilian award, the Independence Award, for outstanding contributions to science and technology. His research on long term forecasting of weather in predicting floods or droughts through using atmospheric tele-connection theory is also very promising. The book contains material on major natural disasters that affect Bangladesh, namely, tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis and climate change. The author has provided an elaborate description of each topic, including the causes of the formation of the disasters and the protective measures to be taken to reduce the damage done by such disasters. As we have seen during the recent Copenhagen conference on climate change sponsored by United Nations, Bangladesh will be among the worst victims of natural disasters caused by climate change. Such a dire possibility has also been voiced by the prime minister and has been acknowledged by the international community. We may be given some international assistance to mitigate our sufferings but we have to face it ourselves. This book will go a long way towards understanding climate change and natural disasters. Hence it will w be of great interest to everyone concerned with natural disasters in Bangladesh, whether academician, forecaster, manager or field worker in this subject. In general, the book will draw the attention of all who seek knowledge as it has been written in language comprehensible to all. The publication of the book is very timely. The last but the final chapter contains a theory of land accretion by massive afforestation and small interventions like cross dams wherever necessary. The author has shown by simple calculation that if we can trap ten percent of the two billion tons of sediments that come through our river system, the rise in the sea level that will occur due to climate change can be averted and the measures suggested will do just that. In that case the international community need not have to worry about the thirty million environmental refugees that will be generated in Bangladesh because of the sea level rise.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments