Of a 50-year-cycle & tremor fear

Agartala: Friday's earthquake has sent officials engaged in disaster management in Tripura into a tizzy even as experts anticipate major tremors anytime. They say a major earthquake can hit the state, or for that matter the entire northeast, anytime.
"Between two major quakes, there's a 50-year-cycle. The last time a tremor wreacked havoc in Tripura was in 1950.It was measured 6.3 on Richter Scale. Fortunately, Friday's quake, measuring 6.4 on Richter Scale, did not leave behind any trail of destruction," said a senior disaster management officer.
Tripura, which is located in the highly vulnerable Zone V, had experienced devastating earthquakes in the past. The worst ever was in June 1897 that destroyed large parts of Agartala as well as other parts of the state. The quake, with a seismic intensity of the 8.7 on Richter Scale, also destroyed the Royal palace of Tripura kings. A palace had to be constructed, which is still the present icon of Tripura, Ujjayanta Palace. In 1869, there was another earthquake that read 7.5 on Richter Scale with its epicentre in North Tripura.
Keeping in mind the state's vulnerability, some specific restrictions and architectural models for buildings were made mandatory, officials said. "This was done to adhere to several disaster management measures that were already in place," an official said.
The focus of the state's Disaster Management Policy, the official said, based on "total risk management and vulnerability reduction by strengthening the physical infrastructure as well as bio-physical, psychological, social and economic status of the people and to make the people increasingly disaster resilient as well". The strategies were broadly divided in three categories pre-disaster phase, response phase and recovery and Rehabilitation phase.
The nodal agency for the disaster management in Tripura is the revenue department. But many other departments and government entities, including the district administration and police authorities and also panchayat-level organization were also actively involved in awareness and capacity building measures.
"We had already got several training programmes for personnel for disaster management. While each of the 13 battalions of the Tripura State Rifles has either raised or is in the process of raising at least one company specially trained to meet the disaster situation, particularly search and rescue operations. We had also got 23 officers at the rank of assistant commandant, inspector and sub-inspector," fire service director Amitabha Kar said.
"They will get training in Hyderabad and later work as trainers. Besides, courses on disaster management are on for police personnel at various ranks at the Gokulnagar 1st Battalion TSR camp," said the former ADG of Tripura Police.
Sarat Kumar Das, state programme officer of the disaster management said, emphasis was being given to awareness campaign and capacity building.
"In view of the fact that Tripura is located in the disaster-prone area, the revenue department had on June 26, 2003 signed a MoU with the UNDP and the Centre for implementation of the GOI-UNDP Disaster Risk Management Programme in Tripura," he added.
"Since then, the revenue department has taken a lead role on disaster preparedness, mitigation and prevention activities at various levels, while district officials such as DMs, SDMs and BDOs are regularly arranging camps and meetings for the purpose," he said.