Bhaskaran Raman, Assistant Professor, Room 212, Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur - 208016, INDIA. Email: Tel: +91-512-259-7588 Lab: +91-512-259-4002 Home: +91-512-259-8801 Fax: +91-512-259-0725 Office hours: Fri 10-11am [IIT Kanpur] [Dept. of CSE]

Research [Research page] [Publications] [Students] [CV (pdf)] Teaching [Wireless Networking Spring 2007] [Embedded Wireless Sensors, ICTP, Feb 2007] [Computer Networks Fall 2006] [Topics in Networking Spring 2006] [QIP short term course (May 9-13, 2005)] [Wireless Networking Fall 2005] [Esc101 Spring 2005] [CS422 Spring 2004 (internal)] [CS625 Fall 2003] Personal [Passion, Philosophies] [IITK Traffic Group] [Save electricity] Miscellaneous [WiNTECH 2007] [WISARD 2007] [Cutting Edge 2005] [Berkeley webpage (local copy)]

Does nature really cause as much destruction as humans?

Number of homes damaged by the tsunami in Nagapattinam: 30,300. Number of homes destroyed by the Congress-NCP Government in Mumbai: 84,000. [P. Sainath, 05 Feb 2005, The Hindu]

Number of estimated deaths in the tsunami: 150,000. Number of estimated deaths due to the 2003 invasion or Iraq, in excess of the mortality rate during Saddam's rule in Iraq: 6,00,000+ [Public Health News Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 11 Oct 2006]
Earlier study: 1,00,000. [L. Roberts et.al., The Lancet, Oct 2004]

"In the town of Karabilah [Iraq], the [U.S.] marines swept through and destroyed or damaged almost every building.", The New York Times, 05 Aug 2005.

I have removed the Iraq Body Count counter from my website for two reasons: (1) those responsible for the killings have started quoting it, so it must be a gross underestimate (which is also obvious given that it is based purely on body count), and (2) people accessing my website from within IITK seem to need a proxy password just because of this site.
But one must say, the fact that those responsible for the killings even cite body counts (see below) represents a huge achievement for humanity!

"We don't do body counts"
General Tommy Franks, US Central Command

"Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators." -- British Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, March 1917 (after conquering Baghdad)