Stauts of disaster management in India

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Dear Dr. Trupti Swain:

My native district of Srinagar as well as District Baramula of the J & K State fall under Seismic Zone V, which is categorized as "Very High Damage Risk Zone" on the Earthquake Hazard Map of India. Therefore Disaster Management assumes tremendous significance in this region. An article of mine on "Earthquake Resistant Housing Designs" published in a local Daily here soon after the killer earthquake struck J & K on October 8th, 2005 is available at the website whose URL is given below alongwith my signature. Status Report of the Disaster Management in India published by the Disaster Management Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India is available at the official website of the aforementioned Disaster Management Division of the GOI at www.ndmindia.nic.in. The report mainly deals with Institutional

and Policy Framework, Disaster Prevention and Mitigation and Preparedness. Hope it makes a good reading.

As you might be aware that an earthquake of an intensity of 7.4 on the Richter scale occurred on 8th October 2005 at 0920 hrs. The epicentre of the Earthquake was in Pakistan, at Latitude 34.6 N and Longitude 73.0 E, 55 KMs, west-north west of Muzaffarabad. Because of its impact, large parts of the State of Jammu & Kashmir were affected causing loss of lives and extensive damage to property. The earthquake also affected some parts of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and its impact was felt in most parts of Northern India. The State of Jammu & Kashmir has been the worst affected. Uri and Tangdhar in Baramulla and Kupwara districts respectively bore the brunt of the earthquake and reported heavy casualties in terms of human lives and extensive damage to property. Following the main earthquake, 59 aftershocks of magnitudes above 5.0 on the Richter scale were reported to have occurred in the

affected areas. A total of 1,309 persons are reported to have lost their lives due to the killer earthquake whereas 1,207 civilians were reported to be injured. 37,607 buildings/houses were reported to have been damaged. With regards

Dr. Geer M. Ishaq

Assistant Professor

Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences

University of Kashmir

Srinagar-190006 (J & K)

Ph: 9906673100, 9419970971

Website: http://ishaqgeer.googlepages.com

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