India’s densely populated cities with poorly designed buildings makes 68 per cent of our urban population vulnerable to earthquakes.
“There are 344 towns which fall in the Zone 5 category (high risk category) making them amongst the most damage prone cities in the planet,” pointed out Shashidhar Reddy, vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority.
Another 813 Indian cities, including seven out of 24 metros with populations in excess of two lakh, fall under the Zone 4 category. These metros include Delhi, Patna, Thane, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Meerut and Faridabad.
If these stats were not alarming enough, the NDMA reveals that Indian buildings are largely not been built to withstand earthquakes. “Only three per cent of buildings use concrete while 85 per cent of buildings are using brick and stone with no steel reinforcements,” said Mr Reddy
A country-wide survey highlights how even new buildings in a city like Ahmedabad do not have seismic retro-fitting. Mr Reddy points out that out of “India’s 8.22 lakh engineers and architects in India, only 14,700 admit to being trained in safe seismic engineering. From an estimated 32 lakh masons, only 34,000 were found to have any knowledge of seismic design.”
“The tectonic plates in the entire Himalayan range, stretching from J&K to the Northeast, are constantly moving and earthquakes will continue to occur but vulnerability to earthquakes has increased due to our population growth,” Mr Reddy added.
Referring to the recent earthquake in Sikkim, he said the population density in its northern district of Mangan was 10 per square kilometre while in east Delhi, population density was 37,000 per square kilometre.
“Over 23,000 people died between 1990-2006 due to six major earthquakes in India, including Bhuj and Latur. Earthquakes are the only disaster where there is little prior warning,” he said.