Our cover on the 2001 Gujarat quake

Natural disasters are a universal reality. They afflict nations rich and poor, and regardless of how often they strike, the human tragedy never ceases to leave the rest of us shaken and disturbed. It's not just the stark images of death and devastation but the chilling realisation that tomorrow, it could be closer home. This time, it certainly was. All of us in the capital felt the tremors and experienced the panic. India is a disaster-prone area: it has been barely 10 months since the killer tsunami struck our coast. The last earthquake to hit India was in Gujarat in 2001. Earthquakes are the most destructive of all natural disasters. In case of cyclones, floods or fire, there is some warning; earthquakes are impossible to predict. All we know are the areas on the globe which represent danger zones. Most of India lies in a danger zone. The movement of tectonic plates has created a potential disaster area in the Himalayan region, brought home with stark cruelty on October 8. Though the epicentre of the earthquake was in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), the death and devastation were mirrored on both sides of the Line of Control. Natural disasters do not recognise official boundaries and last week's earthquake united the two Kashmirs in grief and tragedy. A catastrophe like this brings out the worst and the best in people. Ironically, it was the large presence of army and security forces on both sides that played the biggest role in relief and rescue operations.

For the media, such disasters test us to the limit. For those covering the event, it is almost impossible to remain dispassionate and objective, but that is what the job requires. We had our reporters on the ground immediately after the killer quake struck. Our Srinagar stringer Aijaz Hussain was joined by Assistant Editor Sandeep Unnithan and photographer Ishan Tankha. Aijaz was among the first to reach Uri and the remote villages near the border to gauge the extent of the tragedy. In Pakistan, we commissioned two veteran journalists, Hasan Zaidi and Syed Talat Hussain, to cover the unfolding disaster. They travelled to the worst-hit areas in and around Muzaffarabad in PoK. Their words and pictures tell a harrowing story. Says Aijaz: "An old man grabbed me and asked for my help to dig out his family from the rubble. With no equipment, there was nothing I could do. It will haunt me forever." In Pakistan, Zaidi said he felt equally helpless by the magnitude of the devastation.

Even as relief and rehabilitation gather momentum, Care Today, a charitable fund set up by the India Today Group in 1999, which has raised money for victims of a succession of disasters, has launched a special fund for those affected by the latest tragedy. Our readers have responded with incredible generosity to our earlier appeals. We have no doubt they will do the same this time.

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