NCR of Delhi tops the list, followed by Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai

HYDERABAD: None of the four big metro cities in the country

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) yesterday called on the government to take immediate steps to prevent the Swine flu from spreading in the country by implementing a process of screening foreigners at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

Distribution of billions of dollars in aid after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami often ignored victims of conflicts raging in Sri Lanka and Indonesia at the time, a report on the lessons of the disaster said on Friday.

The world's relief agencies will be overwhelmed by a rise in the number of people affected by climate-related disasters by 2015 unless the quantity and quality of aid improves, a report said on Tuesday.

"There is nothing inevitable about a future in which greater numbers of people die and are made destitute by natural hazards and conflict," the report by international aid group Oxfam said.

Can warn against tsunamis, cyclones

Parul Sharma

On December 26, 2004 Sri Lanka and a few other countries in the region faced the destructive power of nature. The tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean left about 300,000 people dead. This disaster also demonstrated the regenerative power of human compassion. Sri Lanka became just one household where everyone who was not affected did his/her utmost to provide relief to those affected.

The tsunami of December 26, 2004, devastated many coastal areas in Sri Lanka. Curiously, the tsunami spared several areas which had mangroves - dense forests of salt-resistant trees and shrubs that grow in brackish, low-lying coastal swamps in the tropics and subtropics.

Thousands of families in the Southern province depending on the coir industry have lost their livelihood due to the shortage of coconut husks.

They said the fragmentation of coconut estates as housing blocks and tsunami sites has resulted in this state of affairs and that the devastation caused by the tsunami further aggravated the situation.