'Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do': Kashmir’s vulnerable infrastructures

By Gafira Qadir

The sudden jolts had brought residents onto the streets at 10:30 pm, on a bitterly cold February night, as strong tremors of magnitude 6.1 stunned Kashmir. Another one followed, lasting several seconds.

The visuals of damaged residential structures in north and central Kashmir rekindled the memories of 2005 when a massive earthquake killed 1,500 people and collapsed 4,50,000 buildings. The erratic electricity supply further fueled the panic.

Kashmir — located in a seismic Zone V, or a very high-risk zone — continues to struggle with frequent quakes. Since last year, the Valley has faced nearly 100 tremors; some had epicenters near Srinagar, as per the data on the National Center for Seismology.

However, experts told The Kashmir Walla that it is not the quakes, essentially, but the poor infrastructure that has been rendering losses.

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