Jammu and Kashmir is vulnerable to a number of natural or other disasters. Earthquakes are one of them. Powerful earthquakes are in 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 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 even as the government of India recently revealed in parliament that it plans to strengthen the existing National Seismological Network.
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.
In this context, recently a three-day national symposium on ‘Earthquake, Landslide and Glacial Hazards’, attended by globally-acclaimed scientists in the University of Kashmir, was held.
In wake of symposium, eminent experts and academics held detailed deliberations during a special meeting and endorsed the idea to have a Centre of Excellence in Natural Hazard Mitigation established in the University.
Given the region’s vulnerability to different natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, landslides, avalanches and Glacial Lake Outburst Flood, or GLOF, the experts rightly call for having a specialised centre focusing on understanding and mitigating the adverse impacts of these hazards.
The establishment of the proposed centre would surely make a huge difference at the ground level in mitigation practices, research, education and awareness. Centre can also help enhance capacities for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) at various levels.
It would unquestionably go a long way in tackling the disaster impacts in the region and play a great role in creating mass awareness and culture of disaster resilience among the people living in the northern part of the country in general and Kashmir Himalayan region in particular.
The CoE can play a pivotal role in guiding the planners and policymakers in effectively pursuing the objectives of the global DRR and sustainability initiatives such as Sendai Framework for Action and Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030).
