Nepal earthquake death toll reach 1,900, India toll at 51; rescue operations on

पंद्रह जनवरी १९३४ में जो भूकम्प बिहार -नेपाल में आया था रिख्टर पैमाने पर उसकी तीव्रता 8. २ आंकी गई थी इसका केंद्र पूर्वी नेपाल में माउंट एवरेस्ट के १० किलोमीटर दक्षिण में था इसमें मुंगेर और मुज़्ज़फ़रपुर ,बिहार ,भारत के नगर , तथा नेपाल का काठमांडू  पूरी तरह बर्बाद हो गए थे। 

आज दोपहर पूर्व काठमांडू के नज़दीक आये भूकम्प की तीव्रता ७. ९ आंकी गई है ,इसने नेपाल के इतिहास को पौंछ दिया है। माउंट एवरेस्ट में हिमस्खलन भी इसी से जुडी दुर्घटना बना है जिसमें १८ पर्वतारोही अपनी जान गँवा बैठे हैं। 

नेपाल में अब तक इस ज़लज़ले ने ,हल्लन ने ,१५०० से ज्यादा लोगों की जान ले ली है। स्वामी रामदेव ने कुदरत की इस विनाश लीला को साक्षात देखा है जिन्होनें अपना योग शिविर एक मिनिट पहले ही संपन्न किया था। वे अपनी आत्मशक्ति और पूरी दिव्यता के साथ सहायता कार्य में जुट गए हैं। 

भारत का बिहार ,उत्तराखंड ,पश्चिमी बंगाल ,पूर्वी उत्तर प्रदेश भी इसकी चपेट में आया है।यहां भी अनेक लोगों को ये प्राकृतिक आपदा लील गई है। 

 प्रधान मंत्री मोदी की पहल पर  नेपाल में फंसे भारतीयों की पहली खेप को भातीय वायुसेना के एक विमान द्वारा निकाल लिया गया है। 

सुषमा स्वराज ,किरण बेदी जी भी सोशल मीडिया पर सक्रीय दिखीं हैं। 

भारत की सेना और वायुसेना भी हर सम्भव सहायता के लिए तत्पर हैं। हर भारतीय कुदरत के इस खेल में नेपाल के साथ है। 

इस बड़े भूकम्प के बाद नेपाल दिन भर में बाद के १७ अपेक्षा कृत हलके  झटकों को भी उत्तर प्रभाव के रूप में झेलता रहा है। अभी भी कम इंटेंसिटी कम तीव्रता के झटके आ रहें हैं। कुदरत के अपने खेल हैं। जीवन की नश्वरता का प्रकृति जब तब एहसास करवा देती है। 

भूकम्प के लिहाज़ से भारत पांच क्षेत्रों में विभाजित है जिनमें ज़ोन दो सबसे कम तथा ज़ोन पांच सबसे ज्यादा खतरनाक समझी गई है।

इस हिमालयी क्षेत्र में भूकम्प की वजह भारतीय महा-द्वीपीय प्लेट का यूरेशिया प्लेट के साथ सटके सरकना खिसकना रहा है। दोनों महाद्वीपीय प्लेटें एक दूसरे की तरफ हर साल चारपांच चार -पांच सेंटीमीटर सेंटीमीटर प्रति साल की दर से सरक रहीं हैं। इस पारस्परिक पार्श्वीय संघट्ट से पृथ्वी के अंदर अतिरिक्त स्ट्रेस (स्ट्रेन ,इंटरनल एनर्जी )इकठ्ठा हो जाती है। यही भूकम्प के रूप में रिलीज़ होती है।    नतीज़न हिमालय पांच मिलीमीटर ऊपर उठता जा रहा है हर बरस ,जो अभी अपनी शैशव अवस्था में ही है। 

भारत में भूकम्प रोधी मकान बनाने को लेकर एक समान भूकम्प रोधी इंजीनियरी रियल्टर्स स्वीकृत करें ये वक्त की मांग है। क्योंकि भारत का एक बड़ा इलाका खतरनाक ज़ोन में आता है जिससे  राजधानी दिल्ली भी अछूती नहीं रही है। ज़ोन चार में आती है दिल्ली।

भूकम्प से होने वाला जानमाल का नुक्सान उस स्थान की स्थलाकृति के अलावा इस बात से भी तय होता है वहां भवन निर्माण में कौन सी सामिग्री तथा प्रोद्योगिकी इस्तेमाल की गई।

भूकम्प के अधिकेंद्र (Epicentre )पर नुकसानी सबसे ज्यादा होती है जो फॉक्स (भूकम्प केंद्र )के ठीक ऊपर होता है वर्टिकली (ऊर्ध्वाधर रूप ).

काठमांडू के निकट  लामजंग में था इस भूकम्प का केंद्र जो एक शैलो अर्थ -कुएक ,पृथ्वी के नीचे काम गहराई पर  था (१० किलोमीटर गहरे पर )



Why Nepal is so 

vulnerable to 

quakes

Durbar square, a Unesco World Heritage Site, has been reduced to rubble. The famous Dharahara Tower has been toppled to leave just a stump.

Nepal is used to quakes – this is one of the most seismically active regions in the world. You only have to look at the Himalayas to understand that.

The mountains are being built as a consequence of the Indian tectonic plate driving under Central Asia (the Eurasian tectonic plate). These two great slabs of the Earth's crust are converging at a relative rate of about 4-5cm (two inches) a year.

The upward climb of Everest and its sister mountains is accompanied by numerous tremors.

David Rothery, a professor of planetary geosciences, at the Open University, UK, commented: "The Himalayan mountains are being thrust over the Indian plate; there are two or three big thrust faults, basically. And some very gently dipping fault will have been what moved, and gave us this event. Casualties are reported in Kathmandu, but we now wait to see how widespread the problems are."

Vulnerable buildings

nitial estimates of casualties, even in the biggest quakes, usually start off small, and then grow.

In the case of this quake, the fear will be that the final numbers could be quite high.

That's not just because the magnitude of the main event was large – at M7.8 (numbers will be revised as more data is assessed) – but that it was also very shallow – a mere 10-15km down.

This will have made the shaking felt at the surface extremely severe. And in the four hours that followed the main event, at least 14 aftershocks were recorded, most of them magnitude fours and fives, but including a Magnitude 6.6.

Remember, every step down on the scale constitutes a 30-times drop in the energy released in an event, but when buildings are already damaged, the smaller aftershock may be all that's required to bring a structure crashing to the ground.

And the assessment is that much of the population in this region live in houses that are highly vulnerable to earthquake shaking: unreinforced brick masonry and the like.

Landslide risk

One of the big concerns, based on previous experience, will be the possibility of landslides.

In places in this mountainous terrain, there could well be villages that are cut off, even destroyed by mud and rock that has come tumbling off steep slopes.

It will all add to the confusion as the authorities try to deal with the emergency, and will mean that information will be slow to emerge and sometimes conflicting.

Looking right across the Himalaya region, other significant earthquakes include the 1934 M8.1 Bihar event, the 1905 M7.5 Kangra tremor and the 2005 M7.6 Kashmir quake.

The latter two events were particularly harsh, resulting in loss of life that topped 100,000. Millions were also left homeless.

Historic landmarks were wrecked in the earthquake

Historic landmarks were wrecked in the earthquake

Nepal earthquake

 death toll reach 

1,900, India toll

 at 51; rescue 

operations on

Late Saturday morning turned tragic across north India and more so in neighbouring Nepal when a high intensity earthquake wreaked havoc causing major loss of life and property across a vast stretch of the region today – intensity of earthquake was a mammoth 7.9 on Richter scale. As many as 1,900 people have been declared dead so far in Nepal, while in India the toll now is 51. Huge tremors also rocked the Delhi-NCR twice over, for second time at 12.17 pm, sending people rushing out of their buildings in panic – in a quirk of sorts, residents of Dwarka in Delhi did not feel a thing as is vouchsafed by their replies. The rest of India also felt the tremors to varying degrees. In some place the damage was severe while in others no lasting damage was done by the temblor. However,Bihar has suffered a severe loss of life and property due to the quake.

At least 51 people were killed in India due to the earthquake and close to 237 injured in various parts of the country, which destroyed or damaged several houses and buildings.

Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, bordering Nepal, were the worst affected parts of India in the earthquake.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself monitoring the situation and issuing directives, massive rescue and relief operations were initiated on war-footing basis.

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Nepal, a control room has been set up in Ministry of External Affairs to provide all help and information round the clock.

The numbers to the 24-hour Control Room are +91 11 2301 2113, +91 11 2301 4104 and +91 11 2301 7905, an official statement said.

In a warning of sorts of the earthquake, reports say Sikkim has been feeling tremors for the last three days. Check PHOTOS

This is the most powerful quake to hit the impoverished Himalayan nation in 81 years.

An Indian army mountaineering team found 18 bodies on Mount Everest on Saturday, an army spokesman said, the earthquake in Nepal unleashed an avalanche on the mountain at the start of the main climbing season.

Nepal’s Tourism Ministry could only confirm 10 deaths, but spokesman Gyanendra Shrestha said that the death toll could rise, and that the avalanche had buried part of the base camp. He said two tents at the camp had been filled with the injured.

Ministry officials estimated that at least 1,000 climbers, including about 400 foreigners, had been at base camp or on Everest when the earthquake struck.

President Pranab Mukherjee today said India was committed to assist Nepal in every possible way in dealing with the situation arising due to a powerful earthquake which shook the neighbouring country.

“Deeply distressed at loss of life & property due to earthquake in Nepal,” he said in a tweet. “India committed to assist Government of Nepal in every way possible in dealing with the situation,” Mukherjee said.

He also called upon state governments and agencies concerned to take all necessary steps to provide relief to those affected by the earthquake. “Heartfelt condolences to the families of deceased; prayers for speedy recovery of injured on account of earthquake,” the President said.

In Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed the people to maintain calm.

“Earthquake tremors in Delhi. I appeal to people to maintain calm. Officials out in the field to assess the situation,” he said on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Panic triggered after the tremor and people rushed out of their offices, market places and buildings.

“As soon I felt the shock, we took stairs and rushed out of the building. All the residents waited outside for over 30 minutes expecting another spell of tremor,” Sudakshina Rathore, a Mayur Vihar resident said.

The netizens also shared their experiences on the social media and the hashtag #earthquake was trending.

Some residents also complained of mobile network congestion as they were trying to reach their friends and relatives soon after the earthquake.

At least six persons were killed and over a dozen injured as major parts of Uttar Pradesh felt tremors resulting in collapse of buildings and walls.

While three deaths were reported from Barabanki district adjoining the state capital, two were reported from Gorakhpur and one from Sant Kabir Nagar.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has announced a financial assistance of rupees five lakh to the kin of those killed in the earthquake, Rs 50,000 to grievously injured and Rs 20,000 to those having minor injuries, an official spokesman said here.

Sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik creates a sand sculpture with message “Help the Earthquake Victims” in India and Nepal at Puri beach on Saturday. PTI