The Hindu : National : Plan to spread quake awareness through schoolchildren

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 23, 2004

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Plan to spread quake awareness through schoolchildren

By P. Sunderarajan

NEW DELHI, DEC. 22. `Catch them young'. The Ministry of Science and Technology has adopted this motto to launch a nation-wide programme to create awareness on various aspects of earthquakes — starting from building houses that will withstand even a major quake to coping with its after-effects.

Under the programme children in the tenth class and above can operate and manage seismographs and other equipment used by experts. The idea is to develop an interest among children in seismology and spread the knowledge to the community.

The project is being initiated on a pilot basis in the Himalayan region since it faced a risk of earthquakes of severe magnitudes. Experts have predicted off and on that the region could experience tremors with a magnitude of even 8 on the Richter scale. According to them even though during the last 15 years alone, there had been two devastating earthquakes in the region — in Uttarkashi in 1991 (6.6 on the Richter scale) and in Chamoli in March 1999 (6.8 on the Richter scale), these may not be enough to relieve the underground tension constantly building up in the area because of the incessant collision between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

Speaking to The Hindu , G.D. Gupta, Head of the Seismology Division in the Department of Science and Technology, said that 100 schools would initially participate in the project — 60 in Jammu and Kashmir-Himachal Pradesh-Uttaranchal belt and 40 in the north-east.

The Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology at Dehradun and the Manipur University, which have rich experience in studying earthquakes, would provide technical support, including training on how to read and analyse the data coming out of the seismographs and other equipment.

Currently, he said, efforts were on to select the schools. Preference is being given to those in areas that are close to major geological faults and thus are more quake-prone. Though not as sophisticated as those used by experts, the equipment used under the project would be sensitive enough. They will be able to detect earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5 on the Richter scale and above.

The project would also have a component of research. Some of the schools would be linked to the country's apex seismic centre here and the data collected by the students would be transmitted for detailed analysis by experts, Dr. Gupta said.

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