A well-known geologist at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research located at Bangalore, K.S. Valdiya is among those who think that complacence will definitely be harmful. He also said that had the tsunami of 2004 happened from near the Andaman Islands, and not Sumatra, it would have lashed the eastern coast of India with greater ferocity.
Several earthquakes capable of generating tsunamis have originated near the Andaman Islands and it cannot be guaranteed that such huge events won’t be taking place in future.
As per the latest works of K.S. Valdiya, the “lineaments” identified by the field work and remote sensing along the west coasts of states like Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra “are actually geological faults” that have the potential capability of causing earthquakes. While some of the faults are inert, some on the other hand are active and locked as well that is without any movement.
Valdiya also added further that; “one cannot simply locate nuclear plants on the basis of today’s hazard zoning map that is based on past occurrences of earthquakes………Just because a fault has not been identified, it doesn’t mean the fault does not exist”.
Valdiya’s work has also come up with detection of a seismic “hotspot” near the Indo-Gangetic plain, which should be addressed.
As per C.P. Rajendran from the Centre for Earth Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science located in Bangalore, India has the biggest threat of earthquake from the Himalayan region. To quote him: “One of our major concerns should be the 2,500-km long Himalayan plate boundary that extends from the northwest to northeast, a zone that hosts potential fault lines that could generate both large and great earthquakes (magnitude-7 and above).”
There are several gaps Himalayan axis such as the central Himalayas, which have been quiet from a long time and might generate earthquakes in future. There are seismic gaps also in the northeast Himalayas. Rajendran believes that the geologists in India should take motivation from the Japanese disaster and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and thereby check out India’s preparedness to handle earthquake-related calamities.He also added: “We need to focus both on the earthquake engineering and on the scientific research of the earthquake processes.”
A senior geologist at NGRI that is National Geophysical Research Institute located in Hyderabad, Vineet Gahalaut also agreed to this saying: “The Japan region is the best instrumented region in the world and even there this earthquake occurred as a surprise……We need to improve our understanding of the earthquake occurrence processes. We need more instrumental data”.
Though there are less chances of India facing the threat of an earthquake so big in magnitude yet there are complete chances of earthquake measuring 6 or above in the Richter scale looming over different regions in the country.
The whole India has been categorized into 4 seismic zones, 2, 3, 4 and 5, according to the sensitivity of the region to quakes. Zone 5 consists of areas with earthquake threats measuring about 9 in the Richter scale. Zone 4 consists of quake threats measuring 8to 9 on the Richter scale while Zone 3 comprises of earthquakes in between 6to 8 on the Richter scale. In terms of quake threats, about 65% of India comes under zone 3. About 17 states and 169 districts in India have been announced to be sensitive to earthquakes.
Delhi falls under zone 4. The situation in Delhi is so grave that if an earthquake takes place in the region, lakhs of houses can get destroyed. In the year it was made mandatory for the houses being established in the capital city to use anti-earthquake techniques. Unfortunately, it has always been ignored. Similar situations can be found in case of other cities in India as well. About 80% of the population in Delhi is located in irregular colonies and slums constructed without the recommendations from the engineer. Hence it is very obvious that these houses have not been created as per the earthquake situation tackling norms.
Professor S Mukherjee in this regard has pointed out the fact that many localities in Kolkata and Delhi have more than 2 lakh people residing in every square kilometer. Hence in case of earthquakes there are possibilities of heavy casualties.
The most unfortunate fact in India is that the inadequacy in the infrastructure often mars the entire relief measures and procedures in India. In times of disasters, more people die because of the lack in the basic infrastructure. With a ratio of 0.7:1000, India is not even able to provide with a single bed for every 1000 people in the country. Further approximately only a single doctor is available for every 1722 patients in the country.
Scarcity of money or funds is yet another huge problem that is plaguing the Indian system.
When asked if the geologists in India are ready to face similar earthquakes as that of Japan, “No” was the answer that came form Vineet Gahalaut, the senior geologist at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI). He pointed out that: “The biggest problem is the implementation of building codes and lack of public awareness…….When death toll and economic losses in such a technologically advanced country like Japan may reach so high, imagine a country like India, where there is no law on building codes and almost no public awareness.”
According to the ex-director of NGRI and also the famous seismologist, Vinod Gaur, earthquake or threats from tsunami are surely technologically manageable. Nevertheless, “India’s record of managing even low-intensity hazards is dismal”
[Source: http://blog.mapsofindia.com/2011/03/17/can-india-face-the-quakes-no-place-for-complacency/]
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