Gujarat is paying a heavy price for a calamity that is by far the biggest government-made disaster since Independence. As the state crawls out from a landscape of debris, it appears as the most imposing symbol of a system that is in comatose, though not dead. How can a region officially recognised as the most earthquake-prone be so helpless when it strikes? As the government is caught in its grievous slumber, the scientific community with the mandate to master a natural calamity is not any less responsible. Like the government and the leadership, Indian science has also missed their ultimate destination: public interest, writes Richard Mahapatra