Minor earthquake hits Delhi; mock drills to minimize damage: Officials

The National Center for Seismology reported that an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.7 occurred on Wednesday, 17 km to the west-northwest of Delhi. Earlier on Tuesday, strong tremors from a 6.6 magnitude earthquake that hit Afghanistan’s remote Hindu Kush mountains in evening frazzled nerves and spread panic throughout states in the North Indian belt. In Delhi and adjoining areas of the national capital, panicked locals came out on the streets as the tremors struck. Officials on Wednesday conducted awareness programmes and mock drills are some of the measures being taken by the government to minimise earthquake damage. O P Mishra, the director at the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ National Centre for Seismology (NCS), said earthquake risk mitigation awareness programmes are being held and mock drills are also being conducted in order to educate people about the dos and don’ts during an earthquake.
“Earthquake cannot be stopped but its impact can be minimised by various measures. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is the nodal agency to conduct the mock drills in coordination with other institutes and such drills are conducted at regular intervals,” Mishra told media. Strong tremors jolted large swathes of north India, including Delhi-NCR, on Tuesday night as an earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan. Mild tremors were felt in Delhi-NCR again on Wednesday, as an earthquake of 2.7 magnitude hit the region at 4.42 pm, according to NCS.
Mishra said that the Centre has tried using the new building design code for earthquake risk resilience in which seismic microzonation is done.