The next big one hit this active seismic belt in 1988. I was in charge of a district close to Nepal border. My wife woke me from a deep sleep, early in the morning, to a deep rumbling and ominous sound, like dozens of massive diesel locomotives hurtling under my bed, before the building started shaking like a leaf. The quake cracked and collapsed buildings and pushed fissures in the ground, throwing out sand and water. Though it measured only 6.6, it killed 1004. The remarkable fact was that, not many lives were lost in the rural areas where homes had mud walls and roofs either thatched or with light tiles. Poorly constructed buildings in urban and semi urban areas proved to be the most deadly.  

The one that stuck yesterday measured 6.8 and, so far 74 deaths have been reported.

This disaster jolted my memory about an initiative that was launched while I was working in the Ministry of Urban Affairs at Delhi. One of the Autonomous body in the Ministry, The Building Material and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), had compiled a Vulnerability Atlas of India in 1997. This Atlas delineated the natural hazard zones due to earthquakes, cyclones and floods. The Atlas notes that 59% of the landmass is vulnerable to earthquakes!

A screen shot of the map showing the active seismic zones can be seen below

The red circles with yellow cross denotes quakes of 8.0 or above

BMTPC also laid out specifications of building materials and changes required in the building codes to make the construction safer. To my knowledge very few state governments and municipalities have adopted these recommendations. And to exacerbate this issue, very few municipalities ensure that building are inspected properly during construction phase, for code enforcement!

While solutions do exist, the will to implement those are lacking, and unfortunately, there is no demand from the future victims to force the local authorities.

Are they waiting for another Anna Hazare to take up the cudgels on their behalf?

While we cannot predict earthquakes, we can at least take steps to prevent loss of life when it strikes!