In five days upto August 27, thirteen earthquakes of mild intensity hit Doda, Kishtwar, Katra (Reasi) and Udhampur districts of the Jammu province. Fortunately there was loss of life or damage to property. Amid this, some expert predicted a big quake while a bunch of others jumped with their expertise that a jolt, much less that of high intensity, was hard to predict. While these reports surely create panic, the seismic vulnerability of this party of the region is well known. J&K is also not strange to various kinds of natural or other disasters. There is always an urgent need of finding new, smarter, and more effective ways of managing disasters. There is thus a need to lay a greater focus on building capacity to assess and reduce the risks of a disaster, than just deploying resources on post-disaster relief and rehabilitation. Several kinds of disasters happen in Kashmir. Earthquakes are one of them. Powerful earthquakes are a class of their own, able to strike without warning and capable of creating widespread devastation.
India has been divided into four zones viz. zone V, IV, III and II according to the seismic zoning map of India prepared by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) based on historical seismicity and strong ground motions.
Out of these zones, Zone V exhibits the highest seismic risk and zone II has the least.
All districts of Kashmir valley and Doda district of Jammu region fall in Seismic Zone-V, and the rest of the districts fall in Seismic Zone-IV.
The time of occurrence of a big earthquake cannot be predicted accurately with existing technology but augmenting the Seismological Network can help in the detection of smaller ones in selected locations.
Given the high vulnerability, there is no ordinary escape for the region from susceptibility to earthquakes. However, the foreknowledge of potential danger areas can help mitigate the impact of a disaster. Keeping in view the preparations of the J&K, any jolt leads to more panic.
There is a need to accept earthquakes as a reality and do everything to redefine development plans, especially in terms of building quake-resistant buildings. There ought to be a systematic resort to disaster drills on regular basis to educate the public on what to do during an earthquake. Preparedness remains the key to such disasters. The small jolts which happened in the last five days should trigger a need for better preparedness with expert guidelines as well as adopting some from regions prone to the earthquakes globally.