A group of IIT Roorkee students are working on an ambitious project which aims to alert people within seconds of an earthquake striking across North India in Himalaya regions which falls in high seismic zone.
First of its kind in the country, the pilot project ‘Earthquake Early Warning System’ holds importance given that advance warning can allow people and systems to take actions to protect life and property from disaster.
The project, which is in its second year of development and has given some encouraging results, is funded by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.
The EEWS comprises of a network of sensors, imported from Taiwan, that measures vibrations in the ground and relay the data to the main centre (Roorkee) following which warnings will be issued to nearby cities like Dehradun and Haridwar.
Warnings will be issued only when vibrations measure above 6 magnitude on the Richter scale, Bhanu Chamoli, research scholar with the project, told The Pioneer on the sidelines of the VIth Annual Conference of the International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management organized recently in the national capital by the Technology Information, forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous body under the MoES.
Chamoli said that 74 stations have been installed at blocks / tehsils / districts and BSNl towers between Uttarkashi and Joshimath in the North India region where 12 more stations will be installed within next month.
Overall 100 devices will be installed. North India has been chosen for the project as the region has possibility of large size earthquake in seismic gap of Indian Himalayas which can affect several cities including Delhi, Haridwar, Mujjafurnagar andIJ several industrial hubs.
It is estimated that lead time of 25 to 80 seconds may beIJ available at these places, said Chamoli.
“We also need to educate people that simple steps taken in time can help save their lives during such eventuality,” he suggested. (See Box)