Kinnaur earthquake: 40 yrs on, no lessons learnt

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 23

A massive earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, rocked the Kinnaur and Spiti areas on January 19,1975, claiming about 60 lives, triggering landslides, damaging houses and blocking the flow of rivers.

The earthquake was followed by a blizzard, hampering relief and restoration operation, and it took months for normalcy to return.

Forty years have passed since the devastating earthquake, but no lessons have been learnt. Himachal Pradesh, especially Kangra and the tribal areas, fall in the most sensitive seismic zone V, highly prone to earthquakes. But even these far-flung and remote areas have become victims of increased human activity with huge concrete structures coming up in the ecologically fragile area and about two dozen big, small and micro hydropower projects raising the risk levels.

Seismologist Dr Arun V Bapat, who had visited Kinnaur a week after the earthquake in 1975, said the loss of human lives was less as the area was sparsely populated and the buildings were one or two storeyed, confirming to local architecture. The damage to the buildings nestling in slopes was mainly due to rolling boulders that bull-dozed the houses.

The Parchu river was blocked, a 40 sq m lake was formed, the water turned black and silt level rose alarmingly in the Bhakra reservoir. The threat of an avalanche loomed large following the blizzard, he recalled.

“Rapid urbanisation poses a greater threat to tribal areas and the rest of the state as compared to hydropower projects and there is a dire need to address the problem of rapid and rabid urbanisation,” he added.

Kinnaur district has already witnessed four major floods in the region — in 1982, 1994, 2000 and 2013 — and blocking of the Parchu has become a routine affair.

RS Negi, a retired IAS officer and convener of the Him Lok Jagriti Manch, said blasting by the hydropower projects was making rocks more sensitive, and Urni and Pangi, which were witnessing frequent landslides, were living examples of consequences of tinkering with nature.

Moreover, impounding water in dams created static pressure which led to earthquakes. Earlier, houses in Kinnaur used to have wooden binder which made them earthquake prone but today all the constructions are concrete and in case of earthquake, the losses and casualties would be enormous, he said.