Massive Earthquakes May Hit India

Jan 06, 2016: MHA experts have warned that earthquakes with a magnitude of 8.0 or
more on the Richter scale are likely to hit the Himalayan region, the
Times of India reported on Wednesday.

According to a TOI report,
expert say quakes with higher intensity than the one that struck Manipur
on Monday are likely to rock the region in future. MHA’s National
Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), in an assessment following the
Nepal quake, has warned of enhanced risk around the “ring of fire
garlanding the entire north India especially the mountains”. The report
quoted the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA’s) disaster management experts
as saying that quakes with a higher intensity than the one which struck
Manipur on Monday are likely to hit the Himalayan region in future.

A
series of recent earthquakes – Manipur (January 2016), Nepal (May 2015)
and Sikkim (2011) – which measured 6.7-7.3 on the Richter scale have
re-ruptured tectonic plates that had developed cracks due to previous
incidents, says the newspaper report. This has reportedly created
conditions which might trigger massive earthquakes.

NIDM director
Santosh Kumar told the ToI that the interconnected plates across Nepal,
Bhutan, Myanmar and India pose a bigger danger. Kumar predicted that a
disaster of bigger magnitude could hit hill states, parts of Bihar, UP
and even Delhi which fall under the second worst seismic Zone IV
classification. The North-East and other hill states fall under severe
seismic Zone V.

Kumar also said that the central government has
taken steps to encourage the governments of all the hill states to adopt
a common building code that is different from the rest of India.

According
to the report, seismologist Roger Bilham from the University of
Colorado said: “The current conditions might trigger at least four
earthquakes greater than 8.0 in magnitude. And if they delay, the strain
accumulated during the centuries provokes more catastrophic mega
earthquakes.”