India, Feb. 28 -- The Himalayan region accounted for 44 per cent of all the disasters reported in India

The Himalayas are an ecological system naturally primed for calamities. First, being the youngest mountain range in the world, they are highly prone to erosion. Due to continuous upliftment of the mountain, the region falls in a very high seismic zone, and its rivers cut the rocks deeply. Bank erosion is also extensive wherever the rivers take a sinuous course. Add to this rainstorms and cloud bursts that lash these mountains. Together, these factors form a setting extremely susceptible to natural disasters like earthquakes, landslides, subsidence, floods, snow avalanches and even cloud bursting and forest fires. An analysis of data av...