Immediate priorities should be focussed on retrofitting of vulnerable buildings and lifelines, educational and awareness programmes to engender hazard consciousness and early advance warning for evacuation and closure of power and transport systems. Tackling the Disaster Vinod K Gaur, professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, suggests in an article in The Times of India that вЂњthere is an overwhelming need to make a scientific assessment of earthquake hazard in all areas of perceived threat, notably the populous cities bordering the Himalayan foothills, and design appropriate mitigation strategies for enforcing regulatory measures in land use, construction practices and infrastructure planning.ДЄdvance planning helps to identify vulnerable community assets, support systems and cost-effective remedial measures. According to officials, nuclear power plants are, in the main, built on hard rock foundations and are fitted with seismic detectors that will order the plant to shut down, should the ground motion exceed a particular level.Д«ut the quake adversely affected small and medium industries and historical monuments. Interestingly, the nuclear power installations remained unaffected even though the earthquake was recorded at all of IndiaвЂ™s power reactors located at Kakrapar (Gujarat), Rawatbhata (Rajasthan), Tarapur (Maharashtra), Narora (Uttar Pradesh), Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu) and Kaiga (Karnataka).Д®ven the Kakrapar atomic power station located closest to the epicentre, in the Surat district of Gujarat, continued to work satisfactorily. Several thousands died and lakhs were injured lakhs of houses were destroyed or damaged. Since 1956 eighty-five earthquakes of varying intensities have been recorded from the same area. The earthquake of 1819 had a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale and was located 20 km north of Bhuj. The Alia Bund fault, which is a minor fault, has a history of earthquakes. The majority of the earthquakes occur along plate boundaries and not on intra-plate faults.) (When an earthquake occurs along a fault line within the plate, it is called an intra-plate earthquake. believed to have fallen on the Alia Bund fault (the scarp that emerged after the 1819 Kachchh quake) within the Indian plate.

The epicenter of the earthquake of January 26 is. Mild tremors were also felt in Kolkata, Shillong, Agartala and Nepal. The entire northern Indian belt experienced tremors while вЂњvibrationsвЂќ were felt even as far south as Chennai. The quake, said to be the second strongest in the last fifty years in any part of India, measured 6.9 on the Richter scale. The border district of Kachchh, which bore the brunt of the fury, was almost completely destroyed, with the urban areas of Bhuj (the district headquarters), Anjar, Bhachau and Rapar suffering the maximum devastation. A massive earthquake struck Gujarat on January 26, 2001, IndiaвЂ™s fifty-first republic day.

Indian 2001 earthquake 100 words