Radiation resulting from damage to nuclear plants after tsunami

While health officials in Japan are distributing iodine tablets as a precaution as iodine protects against radiation- induced cancer, many scientists and experts have warned that a disaster in the stricken nuclear planst could be on the scale of Chernobyl where the reactor core melted and radioactive fallout were discharged into the air, harming civilians living at a relatively great distance from the reactor.
Since radiation exists for a long time, it has the capacity to inflict damage upon anything exposed to it. The most dangerous effect of radiation on the environment is damage to humans and animals. Radiation can destroy any type of molecule by causing it to lose electrons. Radioactivity can damage DNA leading to cancers, birth defects, and even death.

Contamination of soil and water after tsunami

Salination of water bodies such as rivers, wells, inland lakes, and groundwater aquifers will be a major problem that the Japanese will face. This will also have a major impact on soil fertility of agricultural lands, due to salination and debris contamination, which will affect yields in the medium and long term. Learning from the 2004 tsunami, many water bodies were contamination by damaged or destroyed septic tanks and toilets, with sewage infiltrating the water supply system.
In the 2004 tsunami, UNEP reported extensive damage to environmental infrastructure, buildings and industrial sites. These include water and sanitation systems, solid waste disposal sites and waste treatment centers, particularly in urban areas (Maldives, Sri Lanka and Indonesia). Oil storage facilities released oil and wastes into the environment, which were not handled properly during the initial clean-up (Maldives and Indonesia).

Solid waste and disaster debris after tsunami

There will be a huge amount of disaster debris to deal with. In the 2004 tsunami it was far beyond the coping capacities of the cities and towns that were affected. Disposing these wastes in an environmentally appropriate manner, and recycling the waste where possible (for example, crushing of concrete and brick to produce aggregate for road and building construction) will be critical priorities.
Add to this the problem of sorting hazardous and toxic materials that have been inadvertently mixed up with ordinary debris. These may include asbestos, oil fuel, and other industrial raw materials and chemicals. Going by the 2004 tsunami experience, rapid clean-up of affected areas also resulted in inappropriate disposal methods, including air burning and open dumping, leading to secondary impacts on the environment.

Environmental impact of tsunami

A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing thousands of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.

The magnitude 8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot tsunami and was followed by more than 300 aftershocks for days, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0.
The pictures of sea water swamping Japan led one to hark back to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. While the final death toll will never be known, an estimated 250,000 persons have perished in the Boxig Day tsunami that year, majority of them women and children.
And as the Japanese cope with the current situation and focus on search and rescue efforts, they will soon have to deal with the very real and severe environmental effects of the tsunami. Here's what they need to brace up for:

Green India Mission

Jairam Ramesh’s ambitious Rs 46,000-crore 10-year afforestation plan has got the prime minister’s (PM’s) nod, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) said on Wednesday Called 'Green India Mission', the project involves adding 10 million hectares to the nation's 40-42 million hectares of good-quality forests, with the long-term target of increasing the 'good' forest cover from 12% to 33% of the total land.

Apart from the 12%, 8% land -- around 28 million hectares -- is technically classified as forests, but "you can see nothing but the sun if you look up", as Ramesh recently put it.