{"id":32497,"date":"2023-02-09T07:36:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T02:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=32497"},"modified":"2025-04-19T13:26:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T07:56:02","slug":"delhis-earthquake-preparedness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/delhis-earthquake-preparedness\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi\u2019s Earthquake Preparedness"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why is Delhi Vulnerable?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What Steps are being Taken?\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the National Earthquake Risk Mitigation Project (Preparatory Phase)?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What more Needs to be Done?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>After the Turkey earthquake, there is the need to review earthquake preparedness in vulnerable regions in India like Delhi, though a major earthquake may not have affected the city in over 200 years.<\/li>\n<li>According to the seismologists, it is a long time considering that the Indian (tectonic) plate is colliding with the Eurasian plate and we have plate boundary and Himalayas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why is Delhi Vulnerable?<\/strong><br \/>\n\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/X2HdaUFLZRnwekrugnFydz1MNQU1YXy5Gk85sfmMttcr9pHycuPrUgNDLoUKrid6VvnAjHlrFrqSPOvmx_9nULrFIYJsviKFOsrXSTE8qTY9Mkrlocl6smN_EeltVTwPENG7Bsgihhb-Gp_ePg7JEQ\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Seismic Zone Map of India<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The country is classified into <strong>four seismic zones<\/strong>, zone-V being the most active seismically and zone-II being the least active.<\/li>\n<li>Delhi lies in <strong>seismic zone-IV<\/strong> going by seismic zonation map of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The problem with Delhi is that it is in the <strong>Gangetic plain and is built on alluvium<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>As energy passes through soft alluvium, it gets amplified. <strong>For example,<\/strong> the Bhuj earthquake resulted in the collapse of buildings in Ahmedabad since it was located in the Sabarmati basin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<strong>What Steps are being baken?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Unified Building Bye-Laws for Delhi<\/strong> mention the BIS standards for structural safety and earthquake protection.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The seismic microzonation of Delhi was done<\/strong> by the National Centre for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, and released in 2016.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The National Disaster Management Authority<\/strong> (NDMA) said a national mitigation programme on earthquakes is being drafted.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Buildings Types in India:<\/strong> The work for preparation of catalogue of different building types in various parts of India and development of vulnerability functions has been awarded to IIT Bombay.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Preparation of Upgraded earthquake Hazards Maps:<\/strong> NDMA has undertaken a project through Building Materials Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) for upgradation of Earthquake Hazards Maps for the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<strong>What is the National Earthquake Risk Mitigation Project (Preparatory Phase)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>NERMP has been approved as a<strong> Centrally Sponsored Plan Scheme<\/strong> with an outlay of Rs.24.87 crore, to be implemented <strong>within a period of two years (2013-15)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The project is to be implemented by <strong>NDMA <\/strong>in coordination with the State Governments\/UT that lie in seismic<strong> zones IV and V<\/strong> in the country.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The major components of NERMP:<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Adoption, enforcement and updation of Techno-legal Regime<\/li>\n<li>Institutional Strengthening which involves Capacity Building through education and research in colleges and institutes\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Public Awareness and Sensitization at National level and all vulnerable States, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\n<strong>What more Needs to be Done?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The government needs to invest in <strong>educating people and checking which buildings are vulnerable<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Heritage structures will have to be <strong>retrofitted.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Follow the 2002 BIS standards for earthquake-resistant design of structures.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is Delhi so prone to earthquakes?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The country is classified into four seismic zones, zone-V being the most active seismically and zone-II being the least active. Delhi lies in seismic zone-IV going by seismic zonation map of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The problem with Delhi is that it is in the Gangetic plain and is built on alluvium.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What are the steps taken to reduce earthquake vulnerability in India?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said a national mitigation programme on earthquakes is being drafted, Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Buildings Types in India, Preparation of Upgraded earthquake Hazards Maps, National Earthquake Risk Mitigation Project (Preparatory Phase).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/delhi\/after-turkey-question-for-delhi-how-safe-is-delhi-in-event-of-earthquake-8433017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong><u>After Turkey, question for Delhi: How safe is Delhi in event of earthquake<\/u><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 <strong>|<\/strong>\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/nidm.gov.in\/safety_earthquake.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong><u>NIDM<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Delhi lies in seismic zone-IV going by seismic zonation map of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}