Earthquake strikes again: Nepal quake!

The beginning of this century, 26th January, 2001 to be precise, reported a major earthquake in Gujarat, with a magnitude of 7.7 and which lasted for over 42 seconds. Bhuj, a city situated 20 km from the epicenter, was completely devastated. Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s commercial capital, witnessed the collapse of 50 multi-storey buildings, with several hundreds of people dead. In Kutch, the earthquake destroyed 90% of the houses and around 60% of the food and water supplies. The aftershocks hit the areas for over a month. The earthquake killed around 20,000 people with around 8 times as many people people injured.

14 years later, on 25th April, 2015, another earthquake hit Nepal, with the epicenter 50 miles from Kathmandu; with a magnitude of 7.8. The earthquake hit in on of the most seismically hazardous regions on Earth. The earthquake could be felt as far as Pakistan, Tibet, India and Bangladesh. Till now, more than 3300 deaths have been reported, with the death toll feared to rise further. Moreover, atleast 18 were killed and dozens injured when the earthquake caused an avalanche on Mount Everest. Over 61 more died in the neighbouring countries. Hundreds more lay in the rubbles. This is the country’s worst earthquake in over 80 years. A major aftershock followed on Sunday, which reported a magnitude of 6.7. Multiple aftershocks are feared to follow.

A number of buildings collapsed in the capital city, including ancient temples and towers. It will be a while before the full extent of the damage and the death toll can be known. Around 90% of the homes near the epicenter have been destroyed. Atleast 29 districts have been designated as crisis zones.

For a poverty-stricken country like Nepal, this earthquake will put a huge restrain on its resources. It is highly dependent on tourism, which will be hit hard because of the earthquake. Also, more avalanches are expected on Mount Everest, and it is unclear as of now how those stranded on the mountain will be rescued.

Numerous countries around the world came to aid immediately, India being one of the first. Indian Army and Indian Air Force are jointly working on rescuing trapped Indians stranded in Nepal. As a part of Operation Maitri, nearly two dozen aircrafts and hundreds of army men and NDRF men are rescuing people through air, meanwhile also helping in the reconstruction of roads, so that evacuation can start with the help of buses, as the air traffic in Kathmandu airport is very less. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally overseeing the planning and execution of the relief operations and evacuation of stranded Indians in quake-ravaged Nepal, making it one of biggest Indian rescue operations launched on foreign soil.

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