Over 900 earthquakes ranging from 1.8 to 6.6 magnitude occurred in India in the last three years, the Ministry of Earth Sciences informed the Parliament on Friday.
Responding to a query raised in the LokSabha over the numberof earthquakes and on the steps taken to deal with them, Union Minister HarshVardhan said various initiatives have been taken up to educate general publicand school children about earthquakes andtheir impact.
“National Centre for Seismology (NCS) under Ministry ofEarth Sciences, maintains a seismological network round the clock forcontinuous monitoring of seismic activity in and around the country.
“A total of 932 earthquakes of magnitude range from 1.8to 6.6, have been recorded by this network from January 1, 2016 to June 30,2019 in India,” he said.
The country experiences over 6.0 magnitude earth quakes inManipur and Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2016, 2017 and 2019, the ministrysaid, adding other earthquakes were of lower magnitude.
On the country’s preparedness in dealing with the quakes,the minister said that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) andother state Disaster Management Authorities, have also taken up variousinitiatives to educate and bring awareness amongst general public and schoolchildren on the general aspects of earthquakes, their impacts and measures tomitigate losses caused by them.
He said guidelines have been published by the Bureau ofIndian Standards (BIS), Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council(BMTPC), Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), National DisasterManagement Authority (NDMA), etc. For the design and construction of earthquakeresistant structures to minimize the loss of life and damage to property causedby earthquakes.
“These guidelines are in wide circulation amongst thepublic and the administrative authorities responsible for the design andconstruction of earthquake resistant structures in earthquake proneareas,” the minister said.Based on various scientific inputs fromdifferent agencies, such as, past seismicity of the country, maximumintensities experienced in the past, geology and the seismo-tectonics of theregion concerned, Bureau of Indian Standards has grouped the country into fourseismic zones – II, III, IV and V. Of these, Zone V is seismically the mostprone region, while zone II is the least, the ministry said.