Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 20: Allaying the rumours that earthquake of major intensity may hit the erstwhile Doda district and regular aftershocks were the indicative of the same, Prof S K Pandita, Director, Disaster Management Centre of University of Jammu today said that regular aftershocks have actually been releasing the stress beneath the earth surface and reducing the chances of major tremors.
Talking to EXCELSIOR, Prof Pandita said, “the rumours that major tremors will hit the erstwhile Doda district once again are baseless and should not be believed in view of the established fact that regular aftershocks actually release the stress beneath the earth surface and reduce chance of major tremors. Moreover, major earthquakes don’t take place in sequence”.
“After any major earthquake, aftershocks of low intensity continue to take place after regular intervals for quite sometime but these should not be construed in any way as an indication of another major earthquake”, he said, adding “even the intensity of the aftershocks gets reduced with the passage of time”.
Prof Pandita further said that nowhere in the world any technology or equipment has been developed till date to predict earthquake as such the people of erstwhile Doda district should not lend ear to rumours. “I think the aftershocks will come to an end within next 10 to 15 days”, he added.
In response to a question, he said that entire Jammu and Kashmir falls in Seismic Zone-IV and V but nobody can predict as to when the earthquake will take place, adding people should adopt some precautionary measures during the tremors to save their lives.
“If you are inside the house during the moderate intensity earthquake you should immediately cover your head with some hard material in order to avoid direct injury. Moreover, one should carefully move towards inner walls having no door or window as such walls have less chances of collapse”, he said, adding “if the situation permits one should move out of the house and sit in open space”.
Prof Pandita advised the people of erstwhile Doda district to avoid paying heed to the rumours as the same would only create panicky situation and yield nothing.
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