New Seismic Maps Shows 59% of India Prone to Moderate to Severe Earthquakes

59 percent of our country is earthquake-prone…learn more…

Monday, 2nd August 2021

A recent report suggested that 59 percent of India’s land area is susceptible to severe or moderate earthquakes.

This is according to the latest seismic zone map prepared by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) along with Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC),

which was released on Tuesday. The report also shows that of the 304 million households in India, nearly 95 percent are vulnerable to earthquakes in varying degrees.

This map will be available to the common public who can access it on their mobile phones in the upcoming months. It is an easy guide to show how earthquake-prone is the area you live in or work in.

According to urban housing development minister M Venkaiah Naidu, the color-coded earthquake zoning maps that were released on Tuesday details information right up to the block level. He said, “The maps will be digitized and the agencies will launch a mobile app so that every citizen can benefit from this. While the access to this information will help planners, it will guide citizens to take preventive steps.”

The color-coded map helps easily identify areas that fall under different earthquake intensities. These have been segregated into five zones.

MoS (urban housing) Rao Inderjit Singh said, “The real benefit will be that people can locate themselves in their district boundary and find the possible intensity of quakes. After assessing the risk level, they can take appropriate action including retrofitting the buildings or houses to sustain any seismic hazard.”

The map can even help formulate preventive measures as, with the help of the information in it, district authorities can pinpoint the exact area or location that is most vulnerable to severe hazardous eventualities.

Thus the cumulative effect of such a hazard can be significantly minimized with the help of on-time preventive action like installation of a warning system and formulating building bye-laws with seismic-resistant features.

The most seismically active cities in the country have been identified as follows,

Zone V: Bhuj, Darbhanga, Guwahati, Tezpur, Srinagar, Sadiya, Port Blair, Mandi, Kohima, and Jorhat.

Zone IV: Almora, Jalpaiguri, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Monghyr, Moradabad, Patna, Parganas, Pilibhit, Shimla, Roorkee, Ambala, Amritsar, Bahraich, Barauni, Bulandshahr, Chandigarh, Darjeeling, Dehradun, Deoria, Delhi, Dinajpur, Ghaziabad, Gangtok, and Gorakhpur.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

Indiatoday