New building in earthquake-prone areas

A few days after the Koch earthquake in January 2001, I rang the doorbell at the Office of the Future Villa in Arthur C. Clarke in Colombo. Its architecture was as unique as its occupants, and its proportions were as unique as its owner. I had intended to invite the great man since I arrived in that city to work for the High Commission of India. Urgent need is always superior to importance and in some cities like Colombo, more than others. So, with one urge on the other I couldn’t pay this call.

Predict earthquakes

The person with the vision “in a wheelchair” was the way one usually puts it. But Clark was not limited to anything, not to mention something on wheels. Go from room to room, invite me home and chat easily with a skater.

I did not have to start. Open conversation with the theme of the earthquake. He said: “I spent three weeks in Ahmedabad as a guest of the Sarabayin, so my feeling of sadness is growing.”

There is not much that one can say in response to such a profound observation, and I was silent for a long minute before asking Clark if, in his opinion, we had come to the ability to predict earthquakes. He said enthusiastically: “Strange, you should ask for it.” He took himself to one of his bookshelves, and pulled the size of a squat. It was a book he co-authored, Richter 10. Clark signed the volume and put it in my hand and pushed himself behind his desk.

I turned the pages of the book and saw the novel open with a dramatic introduction: “Many years ago I was standing in a Delhi hotel when I learned of a faint vibration under the feet. I told my hosts:“ I had no idea that Delhi had a subway system. ”They answered,“ No. ” This was my only earthquake experiment. ”

Reading more with the author sitting in front of me would have been rude, so I closed the volume with a few words of thanks. Before I finished, he returned to my question. He said that while earthquake forecasting may take more time, what must be done is to open a new structure in earthquake-prone areas that will deprive seismic activity of its logical end – destruction.

Back home, I read the novel. It was not as much a story as it is a world’s vision of what humanity might face. The protagonist, Louis Crane, was paralyzed and orphaned in an earthquake. But does it go under? not at all. Grows to become a physicist and Nobel laureate with a passion for creating a way to predict earthquakes.

I did not meet Clark again, but that conversation remained with me as the issue was emerging a year and a half later, when I was stationed in Oslo, I went to Reykjavik with simultaneous letters of credit signed by President Abdul Kalam. I was in my office and the operators of both parties told me who was calling and it was all the concern.

“Speak, speak.”

“Good evening, Rashtrapati. We are honored to receive this call. Are you okay, sir?”

“Yes, definitely. Wonderful.”

“Happy to know that, sir.”

“Now … you are going to Iceland. Please ask them how their work goes to anticipate earthquakes.

“I will do it, sir.”

“You know Iceland is a volcanic active.”

“I collected it, sir.”

“So, find out and let me know.”

“Of course, sir …”

This was followed by a number of compliments before he broke off diplomatic contact with me – which I would not have dreamed of – creative participation in what the president calls the words “basic competence”. The conversation brought Clark’s life and our conversation in Colombo.

In Reykjavik, I found out what the President had requested. A senior seismologist told me, “See, sir.” “It’s like a brain condition. The brain suffers from a series of mini-strokes like the equivalent of 1 or 2 on the Richter scale. You will not feel them. No such small tremors have been recorded, except for the seismograph. We see the behavior of these” small tremors “and conclude with frequency “The chain speed in terms of the time of the great earthquake. We have made progress in our work, but there is a lot to do.”

Preparing for the “big”

India today possesses a sophisticated set of screens embedded under the surface of the soil in many weaknesses as a result of President Kalam’s vibrant interest and serious follow-up by successive ministers responsible for Earth Sciences. India probably has cooperation with other countries in this field as well which can only be described as life and death.

But even when hurricanes intensify, their pace and speed make us worried about our coastal safety, the tremors that have rocked Delhi with disturbing frequency since April this year should make us want to know how prepared we are for the “big one” if it is to visit the Himalayas and the Himalayan semi-India. This “goes beyond” the epidemic.

The Himalayas are young and restive. Are our cities, towns and villages in and around the Himalayas safe from such shock? Are we organizing high-rise facilities in highly vulnerable areas like Delhi and hill stations? Is it time to take a second look at the dams and nuclear power installations in the region for their earthquake-resistant standards?

Richter Ten by Clarke is fiction, not fiction. We do not have in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, as the subcontinent has not stopped pushing into Asia.

How many of us remember how many have died and become homeless in Latur (1993), in Kutch (2001) or even in the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004)? And one in 2005 that left 79,000 officially dead in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and 1,500 in Jammu and Kashmir, and more recently, that which captured Nepal (2015, 8.1 “Mercalli Severe”)?

We are not worried. But we have to be vigilant. This includes work in the short, medium and long term. The short-term requires identifying buildings at risk and developing safety plans for their occupants. The medium term requires making the new architecture system mandatory for all builders and developers. Long-term action must include eliminating the congestion of our cities. If South Africa can have a political capital, another legislative capital, a third judicial capital and a fourth commercial capital, then why not think about such a dispersion in the center and in the states? It must include a clear survey of dangerous density, at-risk altitudes, and deadlock.

New Delhi is receiving political and architectural interest for major repairs to its official buildings. New Delhi and much more seem to receive seismic attention that could do more than comprehensive reform. But if it is not yet predictable, and certainly not preventable, then this seismic plan can diminish after its impact if we think and act correctly.

Gopalrishna Gandhi is a former director, diplomat and former governor

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