9/25/22, 8:00 PM Thirty-eight Indian cities in high risk earthquakes zones

FOUNDATION
MAGAZINE
FINANCIAL ADVICE
STOCKLETTERS
PORTFOLIO
PMS
BOOKS

0
Signin / Signup BUY

  # IL&FS
  # DHFL
  # Sahara
  # SEBI
  # RBI
  # NSEAlgoScam
  # FraudAlert
  # Karvy
  # Anugrah
  # Aadhaar
  # BankLoot
  # BrokerDefaults

Thirty-eight Indian cities in high risk earthquakes zones

IANS
27 April 2015

The earthquake that devastated Nepal on saturday and jolted northern India, damaging buildings as far apart as Agra and Siliguri, was
expected by geologists, who have warned of more Himalayan earthquakes
 
At least 38 Indian cities lie in high-risk seismic zones and nearly 60 percent of the subcontinental landmass is vulnerable to earthquakes.
Barring rare exceptions, such as the Delhi Metro, India’s hastily-built cities are open to great damage from earthquakes.
 
The earthquake that devastated Nepal on saturday and jolted northern India, damaging buildings as far apart as Agra and Siliguri, was
expected by geologists, who have warned of more Himalayan earthquakes caused by the growing pressures of the sub-continent grinding
into the Asian mainland.
 
Very few buildings in India meet the standards prescribed in "Indian Standards Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design" - first published
by the Bureau of Indian Standards in 1962, the latest revision being in 2005. These are not enforced, so almost no one knows such
earthquake-resistant standards and guidelines for home-owners exist.
 
https://www.moneylife.in/article/thirty-eight-indian-cities-in-high-risk-earthquakes-zones/41473.html 1/6
9/25/22, 8:00 PM Thirty-eight Indian cities in high risk earthquakes zones

 
The Delhi Metro is one of the few Indian structures built to withstand a quake. Many of the houses built in Bhuj after the Gujarat quake
of 2001 are now earthquake-resistant. The rare building and high-rise may be designed for quakes.
 
But nothing has changed since 1993, when a relatively milder earthquake of magnitude 6.4 in Maharashtra’s Latur district killed nearly
10,000 people in what was considered a non-seismic zone. Most died because shoddily constructed houses collapsed at the first major shake,
as they did in Gujarat eight years later.
 
The government of India today lists 38 cities in moderate to high-risk seismic zones. “Typically, the majority of the constructions in these
cities are not earthquake-resistant,” notes a 2006 report written by the United Nations for the ministry of home affairs. “Therefore in the
event of an earthquake, one of these cities would become a major disaster.”
 
The earth’s landmasses ride like gigantic rafts on "plates", or sections of the earth’s outermost layer, the crust. These plates frequently slip
and slide, causing earthquakes. We don’t feel the small ones. The big ones, literally, shake us up.
 
The Himalayas and north India are on particularly shaky ground. Sometime in the geological past, before humans, India broke off from an
ancient supercontinent called Gondwana, a name still used for what is now Chhattisgarh.
 
The Indian plate skewed north, displaced an ancient sea, travelled more than 2,000 km - the fastest a plate has ever moved - and slammed
into the Eurasian plate, creating the Himalayas.
 
India still grinds northeast into Asia at roughly 5 cm every year. The last significant - but not geologically significant - quake in this area was
the 2005 temblor in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which sits directly atop the clashing Indian and Eurasian plates. Around 80,000
people died. 
 
About 60 percent of India is vulnerable to earthquakes caused by the great, northward grind of the Indian subcontinental landmass.
 
The only serious earthquake that modern India remembers is the temblor that killed about 20,000 in Gujarat in 2001. The 2004 tsunami,
which resulted from the third-most most severe quake ever recorded, 9.3 on the Richter scale, occurred when the Indian plate slid with
greater violence than it normally does under the neighbouring Burma plate, upon which rest the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 
 
It caused a 100-km-long rupture in the crust, thrusting the seafloor upwards and pushing up masses of water, setting off tsunamis that
killed 230,000 people in 14 countries.

https://www.moneylife.in/article/thirty-eight-indian-cities-in-high-risk-earthquakes-zones/41473.html 2/6
9/25/22, 8:00 PM Thirty-eight Indian cities in high risk earthquakes zones

 
No Indian metropolis has witnessed a serious earthquake, although Delhi lies in high-risk Seismic Zone 4. Srinagar and Guwahati are in the
highest-risk Zone 5, and Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata lie in Zone 3. History serves a warning that a big one may come at any time. Those
lessons come from Bihar in 1934 and Assam in 1950.
 
Although its epicentre was 10 km south of Mount Everest, the Bihar earthquake of 1934 was felt from Mumbai to Lhasa, flattening almost
all major buildings in many Bihar districts and damaging many in Calcutta, now Kolkata. At 8.4 on the Richter scale, it was pretty severe,
killing more than 8,100 (Mahatma Gandhi said it was punishment for the sin of untouchability).
 
The 1950 Assam earthquake may have geologically set the stage for a really big one in the Himalayas, according to geologists. Now that 65
years have passed, it may be time for a big one.
Comments

User

Write your comment here...

Alert me when a new comment is posted

Share

M S Prabhakar
7 years ago

"...Very few buildings in India meet the standards prescribed in "Indian Standards Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design" - first published by
the Bureau of Indian Standards in 1962, the latest revision being in 2005. These are not enforced, so almost no one knows such earthquake-
resistant standards and guidelines for home-owners exist..."

This is a very worrying statement and I wonder if the author(s) have any basis or done any research to substantiate. To my knowledge, every
municipal corporation in India has to certify buildings and structures for conformance to "National Building Code of India, 2005", before they
are certified as fit occupation or other use. If the author(s) are referring to unauthorized structures and buildings, it's a different story altogether.

In any case, if the general public want to know about this comprehensive standard -- not just for design against the effects of eathquake -- here's
the link: http://goo.gl/87vLQo

Reply

https://www.moneylife.in/article/thirty-eight-indian-cities-in-high-risk-earthquakes-zones/41473.html 3/6
9/25/22, 8:00 PM Thirty-eight Indian cities in high risk earthquakes zones

Whatcha lookin' for?

MOST POPULAR MOST READ

Rear Seat Belts Are Fine but

Will They Save Us from
Poorly-built Roads?

Supertech Demolition:
Need To Move from
Symbolism to Tackling the
Root of...

Syndicate Bank: RBI Risk

Assessment and Inspection
Report Reveals Poor...

Use Global Practices To

Reunite Unclaimed
Financial Assets with
Their...

Indian Overseas Bank

Takes a U-Turn. Hides
Names of Big Defaulters It
Shared...

https://www.moneylife.in/article/thirty-eight-indian-cities-in-high-risk-earthquakes-zones/41473.html 4/6
9/25/22, 8:00 PM Thirty-eight Indian cities in high risk earthquakes zones

About Us
AD & Partnership
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Disclaimer
Cancellation & Refund
Shipping

CATEGORIES

Magazine
Popular
Our Picks
Authors
Personal Finance
Investor Interest
Public Interest
Consumer Interest
Economy & Nation
Life

MONEYLIFE FOUNDATION

Helplines
Use our legal and credit helplines

RTI Centre
Get guidance on finer points of using RTI well

Events
All our post and upcoming events

MONEYLIFE ADVISORY

Portfolio Management
Invest with our top-performing schemes

Stockletter
A choice of 5 model portfolios

Premium Membership
Unbiased research on investing and insurance

https://www.moneylife.in/article/thirty-eight-indian-cities-in-high-risk-earthquakes-zones/41473.html 5/6
9/25/22, 8:00 PM Thirty-eight Indian cities in high risk earthquakes zones

Be a Moneylifer with a single sign up

Get daily news, magazine notifications, invitation to foundation events, personal finance emails & much more...

Your mail id here

Sign Up

https://www.moneylife.in/article/thirty-eight-indian-cities-in-high-risk-earthquakes-zones/41473.html 6/6