Kumaon residents fear for safety after Nepal quake

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, April 26

A powerful earthquake in Nepal killing a number of people has created panic among residents of unplanned towns and cities in Kumaon region. Geologists have warned of frequent earthquakes in the Himalayan region.

“The main central thrust (MCT), which passes through the Himalayan region from Nanga Parvat in Pakistan to Namcha Barwa in Arunachal Pradesh, is over 2,500 km long and 50-60 km wide. All along the Himalayas, energy gets accumulated due to continuous relative movement of plates. The Indian plate is under thrusting beneath the Eurasian plate. Energy is released due to this movement in the form of earthquakes,” said Dr Charu Chandra Pant, a geologist at Kumaon University and chief researcher in the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Pant said more than 5,000 tremors, although of low intensity, had been felt in the region in the past 10 years. “If rocks ride on each other during the thrust, tremors are massive and cause devastation,” said Dr Pant.

Town planners and residents of Almora have expressed concern over their security in case of any eventuality. “Almora lacks urban planning. Buildings are not earthquake proof. If such an incident strikes the area, rescue and relief measures will be difficult to carry out as streets are too narrow,” said Navin Bisht, a local resident.

Dr Pant, also a resident of Almora town, said an earthquake could strike at any time without any warning. It was important to prepare a safety plan beforehand. The local authorities must make efforts to set up the drainage system on the lines of the one planned by Britishers in Nainital 100 years ago. “Only these future measures could save the towns like Almora and Haldwani,” said the geologist.

The Himalayan belt is known to be seismically active, posing a high risk of earthquake to millions of people living in the region, of which Uttarakhand is considered the most seismically active parts of India. Many events of M5.5 or more have struck the region since 1900. The state straddles several active parallel thrust faults that form the ranges of the Himalayan mountain.

According to environmentalists, the faults have been formed in the highly-folded strata of these mountains. The region of potential danger is known as the Central Seismic Gap, and underlies Uttarakhand and western Nepal. Smaller faults such as the Yamuna fault near Haridwar and Alaknanda fault near Rudraprayag have been active during the Holocene period.

Meanwhile, environmentalists have warned that too much human activity was detrimental for the health of the Himalayas and utmost care must be taken while dealing with the fragile region of the Himalayas.