Chennai: Come December, and there is a piece of news from Tamil Nadu that throws us off. Tsunami, cyclone, floods – natural disasters that jolt us and get us thinking. They are silent reminders of our continuous assaults on nature and the repercussions of the same. In a way, nature getting back at us for the continuous mindless destruction we cause in the name of development. Tsunami, flood and the cyclone took away many lives.The recent cyclone,Vardah, was one such reminder, which claimed a few lives and left us miserable.

“It is 60 hours of living without electricity. No office, no schools, no phone – it is strange that we don’t learn. Many say disasters are god’s way of taming humans who have no respect for nature and the natural. And one can also argue that disasters are man-made. We can avoid the scale of destruction,” says Gargi Tripathy, a resident of Chennai.

Are we truly responsible for what is happening to us? Scientists argue that men have causedthe process of climate change and it is the prime reason behind most of the natural calamities witnessed currently in the world.

“Global warming, which is converting into a slow onset disaster, is a result of human interference with nature. Let’s be honest – deforestation, depletion of ozone layer, landslides have been sending warning signals,” says Sayoni Das, a researcher working in the UK.

Sadly, development is coming at the cost of nature. There is a growing imbalance leading to a rise in natural calamities. “It is important to remember the ancient times when life was seen as an integral part of the natural scheme. Human beings and nature coexisted peacefully in earlier times, now they are at loggerheads,” concludes Sayoni.