'Sunil Joshi Planned to Kill Godhra Panel's Justice Banerjee' | news.outlookindia.com

'Sunil Joshi Planned to Kill Godhra Panel's Justice Banerjee' | news.outlookindia.com

What is Cloudburst ?

A cloudburst is an extreme amount of precipitation, sometimes with hail and thunder, which normally lasts no longer than a few minutes but is capable of creating flood conditions. Colloquially, the term cloudburst may be used to describe any sudden heavy, brief, and usually unforecast rainfall.

Meteorologists say the rain fall rate equal to or greater than 100 mm (3.94 inches) per hour is a cloudburst.  The associated convective cloud, can extend up to a height of 15 km above the ground.

During a cloudburst, more than 20 mm of rain may fall in a few minutes. When there are instances of cloudbursts, the results can be disastrous. Cloudburst are also responsible for Flash flood creation.

Rapid precipitation from cumulonimbus clouds is possible due to so called Langmuir precipitation process in which large droplets can grow rapidly by coagulating with smaller droplets which fall down slowly.

Major cloudbursts....

Duration       Rainfall          Location        Date

1 minute       1.5 inches (38.10 mm)     Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe

26 November 1970

5.5 minutes  2.43 inches (61.72 mm)   Port Bells, Panama

29 November 1911

15 minutes   7.8 inches (198.12 mm)   Plumb Point, Jamaica

12 May 1916

20 minutes   8.1 inches (205.74 mm)   Curtea-de-Arges, Romania

7 July 1947

40 minutes   9.25 inches (234.95 mm)            Guinea, Virginia, USA

24 August 1906

1 hour           9.84 inches (250 mm)      Leh, Ladakh, India  August 5, 2010 [

13 hours       45.03 inches (1,144 mm)            Foc-Foc, La Réunion

January 8, 1966

1 hour           5.67 inches (144 mm)      NDA, Pune, India    September 29, 2010 [1]

1.5 hours      7.15 inches (182 mm)      Pashan, Pune, India           October 4, 2010

10 hours       57.00 inches (1,448 mm)            Mumbai, India        July 26, 2005

20 hours       91.69 inches (2,329 mm)            Ganges Delta, India           January 8, 1966[

In the Indian subcontinent, a cloudburst usually occurs when a pregnant monsoon cloud drifts northwards, from the Bay of Bengalor Arabian Sea across the plains, then onto the Himalaya and bursts, bringing rainfall as high as 75 millimeters per hour.

Some Deadly Cloudbursts in India...

In Aug 1998: A cloudburst in gowalpara. 400 people died

On September 28, 1908 - A Cloudburst resulted in a flood where the Musi River was swollen up to 38–45 m. About 15,000 people were killed and around 80,000 houses were destroyed along the banks of this river.

In July, 1970 — Cloudburst in the upper catchment area led to a 15 metre rise in the Alaknanda river in Uttarakhand. Entire river basin, from Hanumanchatti near the pilgrimage town of Badrinath to Haridwar was affected. An entire village was swept away.[

On August 15, 1997, 115 people were killed when a cloud burst came bustling and trail of death are all that is left behind in Chirgaon in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh.

On August 17, 1998 — A massive landslide following heavy rain and a cloudburst at Malpa village killed 250 people including 60 Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims in Kali valley of the Kumaon division, Uttarakhand. Among the dead was Odissi dancer Protima Bedi.

On July 16, 2003, About 40 persons were killed in flash floods caused by a cloudburst at Shilagarh in Gursa area of Kullu,Himachal Pradesh.

On July 6, 2004, At least 17 people were killed and 28 injured when three vehicles were swept into the Alaknanda river by heavy landslides triggered by a cloudburst that left nearly 5,000 pilgrims stranded near Badrinath shrine area in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand.

On 26 July 2005, A cloudburst caused approximately 950 millimetres (37 in) of rainfall in Mumbai. over a span of eight to ten hours; the deluge completely paralysed India's largest city and financial centre leaving over 5000 dead.

On August 16, 2007, 52 people were confirmed dead when a severe cloud burst occurred in Bhavi village in Ghanvi,Himachal Pradesh.

On August 7, 2009, 38 people were killed in a landslide resulting from a cloudburst in Nachni area near Munsiyari inPithoragarh district of Uttarakhand

On August 6, 2010, in Leh, a series of cloudbursts left over 1000 persons dead (updated number) and over 400 injured in the frontier Leh town of Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir.

On September 15, 2010 cloud burst in Almora in Uttrakhand has drowned away two villages one of them being Balta, leaving a few people alive and rest entire village dead and drowned. Almora has been declared as a town suffering from the brunt of cloudburst by authorities of Uttrakhand. Had there been a bit more swaying of clouds, town of Ranikhet must have drowned also.

On September 29, 2010, a cloudburst in NDA (National Defence Academy), Khadakwasla, Pune, in Maharashtra state left many injured, hundreds of vehicles and buildings damaged due to this flash flood.

Again on October 4, 2010, a cloudburst in Pashan, Pune, in Maharashtra state left 4 dead, many injured, hundreds of vehicles and buildings damaged. The record books as the historical highest rainfall in intensity and quantity of the Pune city recorded since 118 years old (record of 149.1 mm in 24 hours)of October 24, 1892. In the history of IT (Information Technology) hub Pune, first time this flash flood also anable Pune people to for over night stay (sleep) in their vehicle, officies and what ever available shelter in the traffic jam.

October 4, 2010, a cloudburst in Pashan, Pune may be the world’s first predicted cloudburst, in well advanced. Since 2.30 pm in the afternoon of the day, a young weather scientist in the city was frantically sending out SMSes to the higher authorities warning of an impending cloudburst over the Pashan area. After taking the necessary precautions still 4 persons were dead including one young scientist.

On June 9, 2011, near Jammu, a cloudbursts left 4 persons dead and over several injured in Doda-Batote highway, 135 km from Jammu.Two restaurants and many shops were washed away.[

On 20 July 2011, a cloudburst in upper Manali, 18 km away from Manali town in Himachal Pradesh state left 2 dead and 22 missing

On September 15, 2011 a cloudburst was reported in the Palam area of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The Indira Gandhi International Airport's Terminal-3 was flooded with water at the Arrival due to the immense downpour. Even though no lives were lost in the rain that lasted an hour was enough to enter the record books as the highest rainfall in the city recorded since 1959.

On September 14, 2012 in Rudraprayag district there was a cloudburst and 39 people died.

And this is the latest,on June 17, 2013 a cloudburst was reported in Kedarnath Rampada Region of Uttarakhand State. Over 500 feared killed to till date, it is anticipated that the death toll may rise during cleaning of debris to thousands more as still plenty of people are missing. It left approximately 84000 people stranded for several days. Indian Army and Central Command launched one of the largest and most extensive human rescue missions that had ever been launched in the history. It spread over 40,000 square kilometres. 45 choppers were deployed to rescue the stranded people.

वक़्त अच्छा भी आयेगा 'नासिर'

वक़्त अच्छा भी आयेगा 'नासिर'

दिल में इक लहर सी उठी है अभी

कोई ताज़ा हवा चली है अभी

शोर बरपा है ख़ाना-ए-दिल में
कोई दीवार सी गिरी है अभी

कुछ तो नाज़ुक मिज़ाज हैं हम भी
और ये चोट भी नई है अभी

भरी दुनिया में जी नहीं लगता
जाने किस चीज़ की कमी है अभी

तू शरीक-ए-सुख़न नहीं है तो क्या
हम-सुख़न तेरी ख़ामोशी है अभी

याद के बे-निशाँ जज़ीरों से
तेरी आवाज़ आ रही है अभी

शहर की बेचिराग़ गलियों में
ज़िन्दगी तुझ को ढूँढती है अभी

सो गये लोग उस हवेली के
एक खिड़की मगर खुली है अभी

तुम तो यारो अभी से उठ बैठे
शहर में रात जागती है अभी

वक़्त अच्छा भी आयेगा 'नासिर'

ग़म न कर ज़िन्दगी पड़ी है अभी

- नासिर काज़मी

Not every disaster is man-made BY PAVAN SRINATH

Uttarakhand has been a scene of unfolding horror for the past four days, and is a human tragedy occuring at a scale that is staggering. For many people in India, it is also a disaster that hits home – as millions have visited Uttarakhand on pilgrimage and have seen the places that we now see on the television with dread.

The scale of damage due to floods is not yet known, but is certainly immense. The loss of human lives above all, and the destruction of public and private property will likely haunt the residents for many years. The loss of lives, currently estimated in the hundreds – can go up to the thousands or even more, given the large number of people currently reported as missing. A disaster such as this requires rapid, thorough rescue and relief operations, of which by all counts the army and the state officials are doing an admirable job. Thereafter comes time for rebuilding and sombre reflection, as well as thorough investigations into the causes for the disaster, the amplifiers, and the role of human error, malfeasance and failures.

What do we have instead? Loud war cries that the disaster in Uttarakhand was man-made, and that political parties gave in to various mafias and increased the scale of destruction unleashed upon much of Uttarakhand.

One human factor that can be brough into this discussion as a causative agent is climate change, but only with great care. While anthropogenic climate change has been established as a very likely cause for the increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in India and elsewhere in the world, there are two strong caveats to this link. First, it is impossible to say whether an individual event has a greenhouse gas or a warm climate footprint. This is the case for everything from Hurricane Sandy to the cloudburst over Uttarakhand. Second, empirical evidence for the relationship between the monsoon and climate change is still very limited. There are many theories on what climate change is likely to do to the Indian summer monsoon, but much of it is still unknown. While the summer monsoon hit the coast of Kerala around the usual date this year, its march over the long leagues from Kanya Kumari to the Himalayas was exceptionally quick. The most honest, if uncomfortable, statement is that we don’t know if climate change caused the cloudburst over Uttarakhand, nor do we know that climate change could make such events more frequent or intense.

The reasons for declaring the disaster as man-made were given in a Down to Earth home page feature as the increase in hydel projects in the state, roads and infrastructure destabilising the mountains, and development increasing the frequency and intensity of landslides.

Is any of this true? On the first count of hydroelectric power projects and excessive dam-building in Uttarakhand, the reality is far from the rhetoric. While it is true that there are ambitious plans for dam construction in the state, especially on the Ganga and its tributaries, very few projects have actually been implemented and are operational. The map below from SANDRP shows that on the Ganga, only 16 hydel projects had been commissioned, 13 were under construction, and 54 were proposed as of a year or two ago. The picture has not changed rapidly since then. We can do better than blaming widespread floods on paper dams.

On all other counts of “development” causing or worsening the disaster, the litmus test is the impact at Kedarnath. The holy pilgrimage site of 

Kedarnath is a valley on the banks of the river Mandakini that lies high above much of the upper Gangetic basin at 3600 metres above sea-level [See Kedarnath on Google Maps]. Above it is wildnerness and  inhabitable mountains, and motorable roads are yet to reach the place. Pilgrims drive up to Gauri Kund, and trek up the last 14 kilometres, climbing some six thousand feet in the process. There are no roads, bridges or extensive artificial interventions around Kedarnath, except for the temple and surrounding hotels and housing that has sprung up.

In spite of this, Kedarnath has been among the worst hit areas in this disaster. Floodwaters swept into the settlement, bringing with them vast amounts of debrisand cutting off access for about 8,000 people from the rest of the region. 

We have to live in an evidence-free world to say that the horrific natural disaster that struck Kedarnath was man-made. Kedarnath, as the map shows, lies high above even proposed dams and has only the most minimal amounts of development. It is the benchmark by which one can say that the flooding in Uttarakhand has been more prolific than any other in living memory, above and beyond any “man-made” effects.

 All this has been said in full recognition of the fact that Uttarakhand has always been profoundly vulnerable to flooding, and that there has always been a high risk of natural disasters. The notion that such floods could happen some day was far from unknown. The hope that it may not happen to us or in our lifetimes as free of evidence as some of the claims I mentioned above. Places between Rudraprayag and Rishikesh on the Ganga have evidently not built any resilience against an event such as this.

Unfortunately, the value for human life in India still remains disturbingly low. It is specious to singularly blame governments for this, without also pointing fingers to all of us as a society. But it is certainly better to reflect on how we can build resilience to natural disasters than to think in terms of false choices such as “Is it just another flash flood or is it a man made disaster?“.

Five myths about privacy By Daniel J. Solove,

Published: June 14, in The Washington Pst

Five myths about privacy

By Daniel J. Solove, 

Daniel J. Solove is a law professor at George Washington University, the founder of the privacy and data-security training company TeachPrivacy and the author of “Nothing to Hide.”by Daniel J. Solove 

The disclosure of two secret government surveillance programs — one involving phone records and the other personal data from Internet companies — has sparked debate about privacy and national security. Has the government gone too far? Or not far enough? How much privacy should we sacrifice for security? To discuss these issues productively, some myths must be dispelled.

1. The collection of phone numbers and other “metadata” isn’t much of a threat to privacy.

Don’t worry, argue defenders of these surveillance programs: The government is gathering innocuous data, not intimate secrets. “Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” President Obama declared. Intelligence agencies are “looking at phone numbers and durations of calls; they are not looking at people’s names, and they’re not looking at content.”

But metadata about phone calls can be quite revealing. Whom someone is talking to may be just as sensitive as what’s being said. Calls to doctors or health-care providers can suggest certain medical conditions. Calls to businesses say something about a person’s interests and lifestyle. Calls to friends reveal associations, potentially pointing to someone’s political, religious or philosophical beliefs.

Even when individual calls are innocuous, a detailed phone record can present a telling portrait of the person associated with a telephone number. Collect millions of those records, and there’s the potential to trace the entire country’s social and professional connections.

2. Surveillance must be secret to protect us.

The administration and intelligence agencies have been quick to defend the classified status of the phone and Internet surveillance programs. “Disclosing information about the specific methods the government uses to collect communications can obviously give our enemies a ‘playbook’ of how to avoid detection,” said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander went further: “Grave harm has already been done by opening this up.” Presidents Obama and George W. Bush have both perpetuated this myth.

Of course, if the government is trying to gather data about a particular suspect, keeping the specifics of surveillance efforts secret will decrease the likelihood of that suspect altering his or her behavior.

But secrecy at the level of an individual suspect is different from keeping the very existence of massive surveillance programs secret. The public must know about the general outlines of surveillance activities in order to evaluate whether the government is achieving the appropriate balance between privacy and security. What kind of information is gathered? How is it used? How securely is it kept? What kind of oversight is there? Are these activities even legal? These questions can’t be answered, and the government can’t be held accountable, if surveillance programs are completely classified.

With the phone and Internet programs, it isn’t clear that sufficient protective measures are in place. The president and security officials assure us there are, but without transparency, we can’t really know.

3. Only people with something to hide should be concerned about their privacy.

In the wake of the leaks about government surveillance, writer and privacy supporter Daniel Sieradski started a Twitter account with the handle @_nothingtohide and has been retweeting variations on this myth. A typical tweet: “I don’t care if the government knows everything I do. I am fully confident that I will not be arrested.”

When privacy is compromised, though, the problems can go far beyond the exposure of illegal activity or embarrassing information. It can provide the government with a tremendous amount of power over its people. It can undermine trust and chill free speech and association. It can make people vulnerable to abuse of their information and further intrusions into their lives.

Even if a person is doing nothing wrong, in a free society, that person shouldn’t have to justify every action that government officials might view as suspicious. A key component of freedom is not having to worry about how to explain oneself all the time.

4. National security requires major sacrifices in privacy.

Obama invoked this myth this month when he said, “You can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience.” The implication is that those upset about surveillance fail to recognize that we must trade some privacy for security.

But usually it’s not either-or. As Obama himself said in his 2009 inaugural address: “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”

Protecting privacy doesn’t need to mean scuttling a security measure. Most people concerned about the privacy implications of government surveillance aren’t arguing for no surveillance and absolute privacy. They’d be fine giving up some privacy as long as appropriate controls, limitations, oversight and accountability mechanisms were in place.

This sentiment was evident in the public outcry over the Transportation Security Administration’s use of full-body X-ray scanners that displayed what looked like nude images of airline passengers. No one wanted to end airport security checks. They wanted checks that were less intrusive. Congress required the TSA to use less-revealing software, and the agency ended up switching to different machines.

5. Americans aren’t especially bothered by government intrusions into their privacy.

“The public is just fine with government snooping in the name of counterterrorism,” read one Washington Post headline this past week. Indeed, a Post and Pew Research Center poll found that a majority of Americans prioritized the investigation of possible terrorist threats over the protection of personal privacy and considered it “acceptable” for the NSA to use secret court orders to access phone records to investigate terrorism.

Yet the same poll showed that the public was more closely divided on whether “the U.S. government should be able to monitor everyone’s e-mail and other online activities if officials say this might prevent future terrorist attacks.” And a Gallup poll found that only 37 percent of Americans approved of the NSA obtaining phone records and Internet communications as part of efforts to investigate terrorism, while 53 percent disapproved.

I would expect polls to show even more support for privacy if it weren’t falsely pitted — in public debates and in poll questions themselves — against stopping terrorist attacks. We don’t have to choose between preserving privacy and preventing terrorism. We do have to decide how much oversight and accountability there should be when the government conducts surveillance of its citizens.

गालिब का खत .. नवाब अलाउद्दीन खाँ अलाई के नाम

मिर्ज़ा ग़ालिब , एक महान शायर ही नहीं एक अद्भुत पत्र लेखक भी थे . उन्होंने जो पत्र लिखे हैं उनसे 1857 के ग़दर के बारे में बहुत महत्वपूर्ण जानकारी मिलती है . अपने पत्रों के बारे निम्न शेर कहा है सौ कोस से बेजुबान -ए -कलाम बातें किया करो ,

और हिज्र में विसाल के मज़े लिया करो ... 

गालिब का खत .. नवाब अलाउद्दीन खाँ अलाई के नाम

खुशी है यह आने की बरसात के
पिएँ बादा-ए-नाब और आम खाएँ।

सरागाजे मौसम में अँधे हैं हम
कि दिल्ली को छोड़ें लोहारू को जाएँ।

सिवा नाज के जो है मकलूबे जाँ
न वाँ आम पाएँ न अँगुर पाएँ।

हुआ हुक्म बावर्चियों को कि हाँ
अभी जाके पूछो कि कल क्या पकाएँ।

वो खट्टे कहाँ पाएँ इमली के फूल
वो कड़वे करेले कहाँ से मगाएँ।

फकत गोश्त सो भेड़ का रेशादार
कहो इसको हम खाके क्या हज उठाएँ।

बादा-ए-नाब-खालिस शराब. सरागाजे-शुरूआत