Earthquake hazard mitigation
Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Natural Hazards and Disasters: Causes, Consequences and Management"
Meaning
Earthquakes cannot be stopped or exactly predicted, so the aim is to cut the harm they do. NCERT gives four steps:
- Set up seismological centres to monitor quakes and share information fast, and use GPS to track how the plates move.
- Prepare a national vulnerability map and make people aware of the danger.
- Change house designs, and discourage high-rise buildings, big industries and big cities in risky zones.
- Make earthquake-resistant design compulsory, using light building materials.
Other steps go beyond NCERT. Building codes IS 4326 and IS 13920 and the National Building Code 2016 set safety rules. Retrofitting means strengthening old schools and hospitals so they can survive shaking.
Example
Traditional designs already resist quakes. Kashmir's dhajji-dewari houses and Uttarakhand's koti banal houses use flexible timber frames, so they sway instead of collapsing. The National Center for Seismology keeps a record of India's earthquakes.