Dehradun: Uttarakhand felt about 14 tremors between January and the first week of April with intensity ranging from 2 to 4.5 on the Richter scale. While no damage has been reported, the hill state is earthquake-prone. ETV Bharat spoke to Dr Sushil Kumar, a scientist at Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology regarding the matter.
Dr Kumar said that Uttarakhand is located on the Indian plate and Eurasian plate which is about 2400 km long. He said that the Indian plate is submerging to around 40 to 50 millimetres below the Eurasian plate every year, due to which the vibrations can be felt and will continue to happen. Dr Kumar said that it is difficult to predict the intensity of future earthquakes.
He added that people in the mountains will have to insist on making their homes earthquake resistant. The government should ensure that all the constructions in the mountains follow the required norms. He added that the government should form a committee to monitor the earthquake-resistant construction. "We should learn from a country like Japan, to build earthquake-resistant houses, roads and big buildings. Our roads will get blocked if there is an earthquake of 6 Richter scale like in 1991."
Dr Sushil said that they have been working on an early warning system to deal with earthquakes and disasters and have installed 17 broadband seismographs in Uttarakhand along with 5 GPS systems.
