Quake damage could have been mitigated: Indian environmentalists

Urbanisation and the clearing of forest land along the Himalayan range has led to rapid stress developing underground - exacerbating the risks of the release of pressure more frequently.
Zain Awan, Channel NewsAsia 27 Oct 15;

NEW DELHI: Hundreds have died after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit north-eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday (Oct 26) with tremors felt as far away as India.

The quake, just slightly weaker than the one which struck Nepal over six months ago, was felt in many Indian states.

"The earthquake was strong like the one that struck some time ago,” said Srinagar resident Mohammed Shafi Sheikh. “When we rushed out the street lights and the ground was shaking. Everyone was panicking."

"I had just returned from school when the earthquake jolted everything,” added Aashi Saiyyed, a Jammu resident. “We rushed out of our homes."

While damage on the Indian side has been minimal, some geologists suggest the disaster could have been prevented if environmental policies were followed.

India has seen rapid urbanisation, an explosive population growth and much of its forest land along the Himalayan range cut to make way for more urbanisation. This has led to rapid stress developing underground - exacerbating the risks of the release of pressure more frequently.

In the state of Jammu & Kashmir alone, over 60 per cent of water bodies have given way to the construction of homes and tourism developments

"The primary motive is infrastructure without even taking cognizance of what is the soil nature that we have, the soil type and vulnerability in terms of seismic zone we have,” said Vimlendu Jha, executive director of Swechha. “If you look at landslides … the cause is largely because of geological reasons but also because of man-made interventions."

But it is not just earthquakes that experts are cautious about. Northern India has also witnessed massive floods over the last five years with over 5,000 people dying in 2013 in the state of Uttarakhand alone.

Though the Himalayan regions of Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, have strict regulations for logging and construction, ecologists say these rules have not always been strictly followed.

They warn that more needs to be done to prevent such catastrophes from happening again.

- CNA/ec