Govt plans to add 35 more earthquake observatories by end 2021

The government plans to add 35 more earthquake observatories by the end of this year and 100 more by 2026, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh said on Saturday.

"...let me add over here that India already had about 115 earthquake observatories and by the end of this year, we plan to open up 35 new observatories and later on, add 100 more to this by the year 2026," he said.

Observing that the country had only 115 earthquake observatories since Independence, he said there is going to be a quantum leap in the number of earthquake observatories in the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm.

Stating that the Indian sub-continent is considered as one of the world's most disaster-prone areas in terms of earthquakes, landslides, cyclones, floods and tsunamis, he recalled the major earthquakes of Shillong (1897), Bihar-Nepal (1934), Assam (1950), Bhuj (2001), Kashmir (2005), Sikkim (2011) and Manipur (2016).

He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of joint scientific assembly of International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI). The (virtual) event is hosted by NGRI (National Geophysical Research Institute), Hyderabad.

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