Shimla Is Vulnerable To Earthquake -Ritesh Arya
Shimla Is Vulnerable To Earthquake - Ritesh Arya
A recent report by National Centre for Seismology states that nine state capitals, including Shimla and Delhi, fall under seismic zones IV and V
Y.S. Rana
The writer is a Hamirpur based Himachali settled in Chandigarh
The queen of hills Shimla, also capital of Himachal Pradesh can be jolted with a massive earthquake at any moment. This is suggested in a recent report by National Centre for Seismology (NCS). According to the report, 29 cities of India fall under ‘severe’ to ‘very severe’ seismic zones. The report further states that nine state capitals, including Shimla and Delhi, fall under category of zones IV and V. The research centre also stated that a majority of these places are in the Himalayas, one of the most seismically active regions in the world. Shimla (Himachal Pradesh); Guwahati (Assam), Imphal (Manipur), Kohima (Nagaland), Gangtok (Sikkim), Delhi, Patna (Bihar), Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir), Puducherry, Dehradun (Uttrakhand) and Chandigarh fall under seismic zones IV and V. These cities have a combined population of over 30 million.
Notably, Gujarat was struck by a massive earthquake in 2001 and recent earthquake in Nepal is a warning to the government and private institutions bent on constructing cities with high-rise buildings in the Shimla-Solan, Parwanoo-Surajpur axis, says Dr. Ritesh Arya, a renowned Geologist. He further said that not only Shimla but whole of Himachal Pradesh was located in zones which were geologically upside down. By this he means that older rocks are resting on the younger rocks as a result of which the entire sequence was geologically very fragile and susceptible to greater damage in the event of epicenter. Most of the cities in the NSC list have a high recurrence and active tectonics, he admitted and added have high population density.
Dr. Arya said that earthquake was caused by sudden slip on a fault. Stresses in the earth’s outside layer pushed the sides of the fault together that brought first shock, major shock and last shock. India lies at the North-West end of Indo-Australian Plate. This Plate collided against the huge Eurasian Plate and went under the Eurasian Plate. This process of one tectonic plate got under another made India an earthquake prone country. “Stretching from the Upper Assam region to Jammu and Kashmir, is known to be a high seismic zone and these cities in the Indo-Gangetic belt fall within reasonable limits of the Himalayas. So repercussions are bound to be felt there,” says he.
The Indian Standards (BIS) has classified different regions in the country into Zones II to V after compilation of earthquake records, tectonic activity and damage caused, the director of the NCS Vineet Gauhlat said. Zone V is the most seismically active region while Zone II is the least. Zone IV and Zone V fall under ‘severe’ and ‘very severe’ category. Zone V includes the entire northeastern region, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, parts of north Bihar and the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. Parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Sikkim, northern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and a small part of Maharashtra fall under Zone IV. Chandigarh, Ambala, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Roorkee fall under zones IV and V.
Kusala Rajendran, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and an expert on paleoseismology, earthquake recurrence and active tectonics, said most of the cities in the list have a high population density and fall in the Indo-Gangetic plains. “The Himalayan arc, stretching from the upper Assam region to Jammu and Kashmir, is known to be a high seismic zone and these cities in the Indo-Gangetic belt fall within reasonable limits of the Himalayas. So repercussions are bound to be felt there,” she observed. M Rajeevan, secretary, ministry of Earth Sciences, said 31 new earthquake observatories will come up in the country by March next year. At present, there are 84 observatories. This is being done to detect and record earthquake parameters more accurately and identify possible precursors of tremors. The NCS has also carried out micro zonation of cities like Delhi and Kolkata to study the possible impact of earthquake in these mega cities.
* Not only Shimla but whole Himachal is located in zones which were geologically upside down. It means that older rocks are resting on the younger rocks as a result of which the entire sequence was geologically very fragile and susceptible to greater damage in the event of epicenter
-Dr. Ritesh Arya, Renowned Geologist
Himachal-o-Meter
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