June 2022

5mn indians affected by disasters: UN

@ UN report - 50 lakh people internally displaced due to climate change and disasters in 2021
! GLOBAL TRENDS REPORT by UNHCR - over 100mn people forcefully displaced in 2021 on account of violence, human right abuses, food insecurity, climate crisis, war in ukraine, other emergencies from africa to afghanistan
$ In 2021 - largest displacements took place in china, next in Philippines, then in india(4.9mn)

JULY, 2022

Manipur landslides

National landslide susceptibility mapping project

Measuring earthquakes

5.9 richter scale in afghanistan
National centre for seismology under the MoES - nodal agency
richter scale: relationship between the quantum of energy released and the wave amplitude
japan has a successful early warning system

59% landmass of India prone to earthquake

59% of the landmass of india - prone to quake
zone V - 11%
zone IV - 18%
zone III - 30%

November 2024

Modi Govt approves ₹1115 crore for disaster relief.

Uttarakhand : ₹139 crore
North Eastern States : ₹378 crore
Himachal Pradesh : ₹139 crore
Karnataka: ₹72 crore
Tamil Nadu: ₹50 crore
West Bengal : ₹50 crore
Maharashtra : ₹100 crore
Kerala : ₹72 crore

February 2025

Landslide Risk Mitigation Scheme (LRMS)

Approved for: Sikkim, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand (2019).
Objective: Disaster preparedness & capacity building for landslide mitigation.
Financial Outlay: ₹43.91 Cr under SDMAs/DDMAs.
Key Outcomes: Landslide mitigation, real-time monitoring, awareness programs, capacity building & training.

National Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Risk Mitigation project (NGRMP)

Approved for Arunachal, Himachal, Sikkim, Uttarakhand with ₹150 Cr funding (₹135 Cr from NDMF, ₹15 Cr from states).
Goals: Prevent loss of life, strengthen early warning, enhance scientific mitigation, and use indigenous knowledge.
Total components - 4
Component I: GLOF Risk Assessment & Lake Inventory.

March 2025

Earthquakes in Myanmar and Thailand

Two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.0 on the Richter Scale jolted Myanmar on Friday the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said.
India launches "Operation Brahma" to support earthquake impacted Myanmar

December 2025

61% of the country now at moderate to high risk - India's new seismic map shows

& 75% of the Indian population lives in seismically active regions.

Highlights of the map

Almost the country's entire Himalayan arc has now been placed in the newly created zone 6 - the highest seismic hazard category in the map released under the earthquake design for 2025 by the Bureau of Indian standards.

For the first time, the BIS guidelines also address non structural components of buildings, including parapets, overhead tanks, electrical lines and lifts, which often fall and cause injuries during earthquakes.

The guidelines also say that heavy, non structural elements exceeding 1% of the buildings weight must be anchored to prevent dangerous internal collapse.

Zone 6

It is a newly introduced category in the seismic map, created specifically to mark regions of Ultra High Earthquake Hazard.

This includes the Himalayan Belt and also the Andaman Nicobar Islands.

Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment

It is based on Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) a modern scientific method that estimates both the likelihood and the intensity of ground shaking an area may experience.

Exposure Window

The revised map also brings in a concept known as exposure window, which takes into account population density, infrastructure and Socioeconomic vulnerability, Probabilistic Exposure and multi hazard methodology (PEMA).

The old version

The earliest seismic maps split the Himalaya into zone 4 and 5 even though the entire belt is located on the same coalition boundary between the India and Eurasian plates, placing steady tectonic stress beneath states such as Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh.

The previous map last revised in 2016 had divided into four segment zones, mainly

II (low),
III (moderate),
IV (high),
V (very high)

Some segments. of the central Himalaya, particularly between Uttarakhand and Western Nepal, haven't had major quake in almost 200 years, a long gap that indicates strain has been building across this part of the arc. Print