Quake-prone, yet not prepared for disaster

Arteev Sharma 

Tribune News Service 

Jammu, October 26 

A decade after the 7.6 magnitude quake claimed 86,000 lives on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, the government seems to have learnt no lesson in handling disasters despite the state being “tectonically active” and vulnerable to massive earthquakes. 

The state still lacks concrete disaster management policy and what is more worrying is that the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) and its offshoots at divisional and district levels are dominated by ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats as inclusion of experts has been overlooked by the government. 

“The government’s policy to handle disasters is limited to paper only. It has constituted two task forces, but these are not well equipped to deal with such tragedies,” said GM Bhat, a noted geologist.  

“We are fortunate that the epicentre of today’s earthquake is almost 1,000 km away from J&K, otherwise it would have an immeasurable and catastrophic impact in the state,” said Bhat. 

He said the earthquake measuring 8 to 9 on the Richter scale was overdue in the state and the government should immediately implement the already-drafted policy for disaster management.

“Though we can’t predict an earthquake, but there is a possibility of greater disaster in the near future. So far, efforts and preparedness made to deal with such disasters in the state, which falls in seismic 

zone IV and V, are not satisfactory. The successive regimes should be held responsible for it,” he said. 

The geologist also said: “The Chief Minister is heading the SDMA while Cabinet ministers and bureaucrats are its members. What will they do at the time of crisis? There should be inclusion of experts in such bodies who can help in meeting such challenges. The haphazard construction of buildings without taking care of the seismic risk needs to be stopped 

as it will have a colossal effect on human lives.”

On July 31, the government had approved the first-ever disaster management plan for the state in an effort to reduce the vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters and natural calamities in a more effective manner. 

The government then had said the plan was long overdue as there were lessons to be learnt from the devastating floods of 2014 in terms of real-time rescue missions for timely evacuation of people. 

Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, Head Earth Sciences Department at University of Kashmir, said J&K was “tectonically quite active” and earthquake of the magnitude of 8 or 9 on the Richter scale could create havoc in the state.

“It is an open secret that the disaster management is completely missing in Jammu and Kashmir. The state is not well equipped to deal with any catastrophic situation. And for this, the entire government machinery needs to be blamed as it has miserably failed in capacity building,” said Romshoo.

“Like today, the state will lose the battle if mobile phones get dysfunctional after the disaster as the authorities do not have a plan to come out of such situations. Though the government had recently approved the disaster management plan, it is yet to be implemented,” he said.