Kangra Chamba Earthquakes: 16 Quakes in a Month, This HP Region Sits in India’s Highest Danger Zone
Kangra Chamba Earthquakes: Kangra-Chamba shook 16 times in June, one above magnitude 5. Centre confirms region sits in India’s highest hazard zone, capable of 7.0+ quakes.
North Desk Correspondent
Chandigarh, July 22
The ground under Kangra-Chamba did not stay still through June. The region was rattled by 16 separate earthquakes in a single month — an average of one every two days — with one tremor crossing magnitude 5.0, according to government data placed before the Lok Sabha.
Kangra Chamba Earthquakes: The Centre’s own scientists have long flagged what this means: the Kangra-Chamba-Dharamshala belt sits in Seismic Zone V, the highest earthquake hazard classification anywhere in India. And it isn’t just a label. Studies by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) and other institutions warn the region’s active tectonic processes make it capable of unleashing an earthquake exceeding magnitude 7.0 — in the same seismic family as the 1905 Kangra quake, one of the deadliest in Himalayan history.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh gave the numbers in a written reply, revising down a figure of 18 earthquakes that had been cited in the original Lok Sabha question to 16, based on National Center for Seismology (NCS) monitoring.
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Kangra Chamba Earthquakes: The breakdown
12 earthquakes measuring 2.0-2.9
3 earthquakes measuring 3.0-3.9
Zero in the 4.0-4.9 range
1 earthquake measuring 5.0-5.9
Watching, but is anyone building for it?
Kangra Chamba Earthquakes: The government points to its monitoring muscle: 172 seismic stations nationwide, seven of them in Himachal Pradesh alone — Shimla, Dharamshala, Tissa, Sundernagar, Kalpa, Bhakra and Pong Dam — feeding a 24×7 real-time network.
But monitoring an earthquake and surviving one are different things. The Centre was candid about where responsibility actually sits: while it has issued earthquake-resistant construction advisories through the National Building Code, BIS seismic design norms and Model Building Bye-Laws, enforcing them on the ground is entirely up to state governments and urban local bodies, and not Delhi.
NDMA says it runs mock drills, trains first responders, and pushes retrofitting of vulnerable buildings in coordination with states. Seismic microzonation studies continue at scientific institutions and universities, and the Centre says financial and technical assistance keeps flowing to Himachal Pradesh under disaster mitigation schemes.
The question the numbers leave hanging: in a zone the government itself says could produce a 7.0+ earthquake, is Kangra-Chamba’s building stock actually ready for one?
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