India: Tri-cities of Chandigarh, Mohali and Punchkula, and Shimla on path to a better earthquake disaster preparedness

Mega Mock Drill on earthquake preparedness was conducted by the governments of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and UT Chandigarh in collaboration and guidance of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in tri-cities of Chandigarh, Mohali and Punchkula, and at Shimla on 13th Feb., 2013. It is for the first time that such an effort has been made in this region. These states and UT Chandigarh lie in seismic zones IV and V and therefore their vulnerability to earthquake hazard is a matter of serious concern. Earthquakes are one of the worst natural calamities which can neither be predicted nor prevented. The impact of such a disaster on lives and property can be reduced considerably by better preparedness and awareness.

The NDMA for the first time in history of our country initiated a project to develop a multi-state earthquake disaster scenario for a hypothetical earthquake of Magnitude 8 with its epicenter at Sundernagar Town in Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh. This hypothetical Scenario has been developed by team of earthquake engineering experts from IITs Bombay and Madras, and in consultation with the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Seismology Division of IMD and Geological Survey of India under the guidance of NDMA. The simulation results with the epicenter near Sundernagar in Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh which lies in the seismic zone V and projects strong shaking in the States of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. It has been considered to be on the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) at a depth of 15 km, the MSK Intensity map using the Boore and Atkinson (2008) GMPE has been used . It is seen that the maximum intensity obtained due to this earthquake ~ X which is observed at the rupture surface and the MBT fault is ruptured to a length of 200 km over the districts starting from the middle of Kangra, passing through Mandi, Bilaspur and Solan. The epicentre of the hypothetical earthquake is located in a “seismic gap” in western Himalaya and several scientists expect this region to experience a large earthquake in the future.

To have a pragmatic assessment of coordinated response capabilities, sites were carefully selected with due consideration to encompass varied range. In all 60 sites were selected such as government buildings, malls, engineering college, hospitals, office complexes, airport, railway station, market area, schools, bus station, cinema halls, petrol stations etc. In the tri-cities of Chandigarh, Mohali and Punchkula, and at Shimla. A Unified Command, State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and District EOC were setup with dedicated stand alone Disaster Management Communication Network. Connectivity was established with NDMA and MHA EOCs.

Objectives of the exercise was:

i. To generate greater public awareness about the vulnerability of the region to disasters with specific emphasis on earthquakes;
ii. Steps that need to be taken to reduce their impact on people, their family and the community etc.;
iii. To raise awareness that it is not the earthquake but the collapse of buildings and built infrastructure that result in injury and deaths.
iv. To highlight the importance of construction of safe buildings, which comply with earthquake resistant norms as also the requirement of assessment of existing lifeline and critical buildings, water pipelines etc.
v. To test the response capabilities of various agencies at the state and district level, and;
vi. To identify the gaps.

About 900 personnel from NDRF organized in 30 teams, approx 900 civil defense personnel and 270 independent observers from Army participated in the exercise. The emergency support functionaries like police, health, fire, ambulance, civil defense, power and PWD etc participated. During the mock drill the response time, communication, coordination and skills of these emergency support functionaries were observed. At the same time the local residents benefitted from the mock drill which resulted in increased awareness.

We would consider that the success of this drill has been the identification of the gaps in our response preparedness and actions, and this will lay a strong foundation for enhanced preparedness efforts to be carried out in a sustained manner in future

The key important lessons learnt are:

i. Necessity of establishment Disaster Management Plans at various levels;
ii. Need for state-of-the art emergency operation centres at the state and district level with redundancy;
iii. Setting-up and use of wireless communication system for the stakeholders to more effectively deal with an earthquake disaster  cenario;
iv. Recognise capacity of having better road accessibility in case of disaster;
v. Identification of requirements of state-of-the-art equipment and systematic inventory of resources, both with govt. and private sector;
vi. Need for adequate number of ambulances;
vii. Greater public awareness and sensitization of people for enhanced preparedness.
viii. The need to make younger generation aware of the earthquake hazards and coping mechanism.

The NDMA in close collaboration with other states in seismic zones IV & V is planning to focus on earthquake disaster preparedness over the next two-three years.

**********