Wake up call
Falling under zone V of the seismic map of the country, North-East, which is standing on the lose soil is vulnerable to major quakes.

It is high time for the North-Eastern region to learn a lesson from the recent quake that devastated Pakistan and parts of North India. Falling under zone V of the seismic map of the country, North-East region is vulnerable to major quakes. According to experts quakes measuring more than seven in Richter scale will cause massive destruction in the region. It may be mentioned here that the region which is standing on the lose soil of one of the youngest mountain ranges of the world, has been rocked by several major earthquakes in the past.

Renowned seismologist Prof BL Dhar of Jammu University says that fault lines are running through the Himalayas from Pakistan to Burma and these are quite active. Moreover, as the Indian plate is heading towards the Eurasian plate it can cause tremors and one tremor can trigger another due to geological reasons.

Apart from falling under zone V, massive urbanisation, unplanned construction of high-rise buildings, criss-crossing of the oil pipelines, etc, have made the region more vulnerable to quakes. Moreover, basic infrastructures like roads and hospitals are lacking in the region. Thus in case of any major tremor damage would be much more than expected because of congested locality and poor supporting facilities.

North-East region has history of major earthquakes. During 1548 to 1848 the region had suffered more than eleven major quakes, according to experts. The region was hit by two major quakes measuring 8.7 in Richter scale in 1897 and 1950. North-East also witnessed several earthquakes measuring more than 6 in Richter scale during the last century.

It’s a pity that notwithstanding the history of major earthquakes, states are ill prepared to face the natural disaster. The states of the region are neither following measures to limit the damages, nor they are making any efforts to increase awareness among the people.

Interestingly, while the State governments of the North-Eastern states face a gigantic task of making people aware about the impending danger, Nagaland has claimed that it had already started working on it. Disclosing this Kewachu Semy, Joint Director of Administrative Training Institute (ATI) in a disaster management programme said that Nagaland, along with the other NE states, was not safe from natural calamities, such as landslides, flood and earthquakes. He said, ‘‘we cannot remain susceptible to impending dangers and need to percolate information to all government set-up, institutions, NGOs and civil societies.’’ ‘’Whenever disaster strike, devastation of high magnitude occur and people are greatly inflicted,’’ he said. He also informed that in order to deal with natural disasters, the Home Department has taken several initiatives.

A Disaster Management Authority, with Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio as Chairman, is in place and so is a State Steering Committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary with other departmental heads as its members. He further said that for quick dissemination of information, control rooms have been set up in the State capital and all the district headquarters, while disaster management framework had been adopted assigning responsibilities to various stakeholders. District Disaster Management Committees have been constituted in all the 11 districts of Nagaland and block and village level disaster management committees are in their final stages, Mr. Semy informed.

Speaking from the same platform, Additional Director of ATI F P Solo expressed satisfaction over the outcome of programme and further added that disaster management was not only the responsibility of the Government, but needed coordinated efforts from all section of the society.’ We also impress upon all the departments to contribute to the initiatives taken by the Home department in making the programme a success,’’ he said. The training was attended by 28 nodal officers representing various departments with Akshya Kumar Biswal, Programme Associate, Ministry of Home Affairs and Prof. N Pandey, Professor Nagaland University as the key resource people for the training, coordinated by N Mao Longkumer, lecturer of ATI.

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