Earthquake Risk In India: The recent earthquake killed thousands of people in Turkey and Syria and destroyed hundreds of buildings. So far 8000 deaths have been reported. In such a situation, the biggest question now in people’s mind is ‘How sensitive is India to earthquakes?’ According to the government, about 59 percent of India’s land area is vulnerable to earthquakes of varying intensity. Cities and towns in eight states and union territories are in Zone-5 and are at risk of earthquakes of the highest intensity. Even the National Capital Region (NCR) is in Zone-4, which is the second highest category.
Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh informed the Lok Sabha in July 2021 that “looking at the recorded history of earthquakes in the country, 59% of the total land area of India is prone to different earthquakes”. sensitive to.” He said that according to the seismic zoning map of the country, the total area has been classified into four seismic zones.
Zones are divided like this
Zone 5 is the region where the most intense earthquakes occur, while the least intense earthquakes occur in Zone 2. About 11% of the country’s area falls in Zone 5, 18% in Zone 4, 30% in Zone 3 and the rest in Zone 2. Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar fall in Zone-5.
The risk is highest in the Himalayan region
The Central Himalayan region is one of the most seismically active regions in the world. In 1905, Kangra was affected by a major earthquake. At the same time, in 1934, the Bihar-Nepal earthquake occurred, whose intensity was measured at 8.2 and 10,000 people were killed in it. In 1991, more than 800 people were killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Uttarkashi. After that in 2005 there was a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Kashmir. In which 80,000 people were killed.
Earthquake threat in Delhi-Gurugram as well
According to a report, Delhi is located near three active seismic lines: Sohna, Mathura and Delhi-Moradabad. Experts say that Gurugram is the riskiest locality in Delhi-NCR as it lies on seven fault lines. If these become active, then a high intensity earthquake can occur and it will create havoc.
Seismologists say that since Delhi-NCR is close to the Himalayas, it feels the changes in tectonic plates. Any earthquake in the Himalayan belt can affect Delhi-NCR.
read this also- India will get the world’s most powerful drone, China’s arrogance will come out in the Indian Ocean
