Illegal structures dot Kangra’s quake-prone areas

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, August 25

Illegal constructions in earthquake-prone areas in Kangra are flourishing despite orders of various courts, thanks to the apathetic attitude of the Town and Country Planning Department and municipal authorities.

Despite warnings, illegal constructions are going on in Bir, Palampur, Baijnath, Dharamsala, Naddi and McLeodganj.

Scientists in the Department in Environmental Sciences in the Central University Himachal Pradesh and experts from the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology said the Dal Lake was the epicentre of the quake that struck the Dharamsala region in 1988. “Surprisingly, a hotel has now come up there,” they said in their study.

The fault line of the Dharamsala region passes through Naddi and McLeodganj and these areas have witnessed the maximum and unsafe constructions in the past more than two decades.

The study revealed that if an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude struck the region, there would be the maximum damage in Kangra, Palampur, Nagrota Bagwan, Mandi, Sundernagar, Shimla, Baddi, Solan, Hamirpur, Chamba, Pathankot, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Moga, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Panchkula, Anantnag and Jammu, he said.

Geological expert Harsh Gupta, president of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, who visited the area, said assessments were being made as to what fraction of stain was accumulating from the ongoing collision between Indian and Asian plates.

As per the 2001 Census, Kangra district had 5 lakh houses. It was a matter of concern that most development was taking place against the standard norms and codes for seismic zones. The situation was alarming as Kangra fell in zone 5 in terms of seismic vulnerability.

Dr Ajay Paul from the Wadia institute, in his paper presented during the conference held at CUHP, said 15 quakes hit Himachal between August 2011 and July 2013. It seemed that the epicentres of recent quakes lay in the region north to the epicentre of the 1905 Kangra earthquake. The 1905 quake claimed 80,000 lives in Kangra.