Spatio temporal occurrence of earthquakes in the Himachal Himalaya

Himachal Himalaya is one of the states in India which lies towards the northwest part of the Himalayas and is environmentally, ecologically and geologically vulnerable to earthquakes. It has been subjected to many earthquakes of which Kangra earthquake is worth to be mentioned. The entire state is considered to be highly susceptible to earthquake, with its 32 per cent area prone to very high damage risk zone and remaining 68 per cent area prone to high damage risk zone according to the Vulnerability Atlas of India. In spite of the intensities of earthquakes being high, 95 per cent of the house types are without any earthquake resistant features. Keeping all these problems in view, the paper comprises two objectives: a) to assess the temporal occurrence of earthquakes and b) to record the spatial pattern of the earthquakes. The study is based on the data collected from various governmental institutions to provide additional impetus to the research. The methodologies adopted for data analysis are simple statistical technique like tabulation, frequency and averages. The result of the study shows that high vulnerable area to earthquakes is the one with structural deformities, higher concentration of population and building types and located towards the western part of the Himachal Himalaya. The proposed study is viable and relevant for future perspective of planning as one cannot avert the earthquakes but can always mitigate and reduce their impact.