On 6 February, 2023 Southern Turkey and the adjoining areas in Syria were hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake followed by several aftershocks. The tremors have flattened buildings and destroyed roads and other infrastructure. At least 35,000 casualties (UPDATE) have occurred across Turkey and Syria, with the vast majority being in the former nation. A news report cited the Turkish environment minister saying that 24,921 buildings across the region had collapsed. What...
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Preparedness as the key
-The Hindu The recurrence of a major earthquake on May 12 — this time measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale — with its epicentre near Kodari in Nepal, barely a fortnight after the devastating temblor in the landlocked country, has once again raised questions about preparedness for such disasters in the subcontinent. India is divided into five Seismic Zones, with Zone 5 being the most active and earthquake-prone. The Himalayan regions,...
More »Killing a country’s ecology -Colin Gonsalves
-The Hindu The Environment Minister insists on clearing all hydro projects, even when the government itself earlier agreed that the Himalayas must be avoided for development work. A battle of epic proportions between the hydroelectric power companies and the people of Uttarakhand has now culminated with the struggle shifting to the office of the Prime Minister of India. It began with the extraordinary and far-sighted 2014 decision of the Supreme Court in...
More »Thirty-eight Indian cities in high-risk earthquake zones
-IANS NEW DELHI: At least 38 Indian cities lie in high-risk Seismic Zones and nearly 60 percent of the subcontinental landmass is vulnerable to earthquakes. Barring rare exceptions, such as the Delhi Metro, India's hastily-built cities are open to great damage from earthquakes. The earthquake that devastated Nepal on saturday and jolted northern India, damaging buildings as far apart as Agra and Siliguri, was expected by geologists, who have warned of more...
More »A year later, no lessons learnt -Kavita Upadhyay
-The Hindu Uttarakhand is still in dire need of a development plan that is also sensitive to the fragile ecosystem that was crippled by the floods and landslides of 2013 Santosh Naudiyal stood on the verandah of a building in Rudraprayag last December while he narrated his story. On October 1, 1994, the night of the Rampur Tiraha massacre, Santosh and his friends boarded a bus to New Delhi to participate in...
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