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Earthquake is most unpredictable and destructive natural disaster. It causes damage to infrastructure, settlements, transport and communication networks as well as loss of life and leaves people shattered and distressed. On 25 April 2015 earthquake tremors jolted the city of Lucknow at the intensity of 7.1 Richter scale, leaving the people shocked and compel to stand in open places for hours. The present study attempts to explore the understanding of earthquake and the amount of psychological distress it causes. A random sample of 90 residents in three age groups from the multi story buildings, and crowded areas of Luck now served as the sample. They were assessed on Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and an interview schedule. The results found gender difference on psychological distress but no significant difference was found across the different age groups.
Keywords: earthquake, psychological distress
Natural disaster is any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth. There are many types of natural disaster such as floods, hurricanes, cyclones, landslides, volcanic eruption, earthquake etc. The present study focuses on one such natural disaster i.e. earthquake. The severity of any natural disaster is measured in terms of lives lost, economic loss, and the ability of the population to rebuild. However, natural disaster such as earthquake tends to leave the affected population traumatized for many years. The history of world is full of various earthquakes caused due to tectonic movements of earth plates and the devastating area was quite large. In terms of intensity, which rocked the continent were those at Chile on May 22nd, I960 at 9.5 Richter scale, in Alaska, US on March 27th 1964 at 9.2 Richter scale, in Indonesia on Dec 26th, 2004 at 9.1 Richter scale and in Japan on March 11th , 2011 at 9 Richter scale. The earthquake leads to large scale damage to life and property. In terms of loss of life, the major earthquakes of world occurred are in Indian ocean, Indonesia& Sumatra region on Dec 26th 2004, in Haiti on Jan 12th 2010 and in Kashmir on Oct 5th2005 . India also has such geographical conditions which make it an earthquake prone country and its history has witnessed various earthquakes. Some of the major earthquakes in...