Question : EARTHQUAKES IN BIHAR

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING, MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES (Dr ASHWANI KUMAR)

(a) Yes Madam.

(b) India Meteorological Department (IMD), the nodal agency of Government of India for earthquake monitoring in and around the country has located the following earthquakes with their epicenters in Bihar state during the period January, 2007 onwards:

DATE	Origin Time (IST)	Latitude	Longitude	Depth	Magnitude
Year	Month Day	Hrs	Min	Sec	ON	OE	Km.	Richter scale
2007	6	2	20	54 21.5	24.55	83.58	10	3.1
2008	6	7	02	46 33.7	24.70	84.99	10	4.1
2008	6	9	15	43	9.7	24.81	85.09	15	3.0
2008	9	25	9	35 16.6	26.51	86.30	10	3.3
2010	12	26	11	17 16.5	24.90	85.79	15	3.1

(c) Yes Madam.

(d) As per the seismic zoning done by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), parts of Bihar state fall in seismic zones -V, -IV and –III.

(e) Guidelines have also been published by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for the design and construction of earthquake resistant structures to minimize the loss of life and damage to property caused by earthquakes. Loss of life and damage to property due to earthquakes could be considerably reduced through proper planning and implementation of pre- and post-disaster preparedness and management strategies by respective State and Central Government agencies in a coordinated manner following the above mentioned guidelines. Further, as part of pre-disaster preparedness measure, Government of India has also completed seismic Microzonation studies of some of the major cities in the country. The Government has implemented various programmes to educate and raise awareness amongst school children and general public on various aspects of earthquakes, their impacts and measures to mitigate losses.