Around 59 per cent of India prone to earthquakes

A new seismic mapping shows that 59 per cent of the country is prone to earthquakes of different intensities. Minister of state for science and technology and earth sciences, Jitendra Singh informed the Lok Sabha on Friday. The minister said that as per the seismic zoning map of the country, the total area is classified into five seismic zones. He   said that as per the seismic zoning map of the country, the total area is classified into five seismic zones. Zone V is seismically the most active region, while zone II is the least. The minister said that around 11 per cent area of the country falls in zone 5 of the seismic map, which is the most active region, 18 per cent are in zone 4.  30 per cent in zone III and the rest in zone II. These seismic zones are classified based upon the empirical seismic attenuation law corroborated with historical seismicity and ground motions of the earthquakes. In his written reply, the minister submitted a list of cities according to the seismic zones.

Zone 5 (high seismic activity): Bhuj (Gujarat), Darbhanga (Bihar), Guwahati (Assam), Imphal (Manipur), Jorhat (Assam), Kohima (Nagaland), Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar), Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir), Tezpur (Assam), Sadiya (Assam).Zone 4: Almora (Uttarakhand), Ambala (Haryana), Amritsar (Punjab), Baharich (Uttar Pradesh), Barauni (Bihar), Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh), Chandigarh, Darjeeling (West Bengal), Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Deoria (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi, Dinajpur (West Bengal), Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Gangtok (Sikkim), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Jal Paiguri (West Bengal), Kooch Behar (West Bengal), Kolkata (West Bengal), Ludhiana (Punjab), Monghyr (Bihar), Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh), Nainital (Uttarakhand), Patna (Bihar), Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), Roorkee (Uttarakhand), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh)