Factors That Make Nepal Vulnerable To Earthquakes Apply To India Too

When an earthquake hit Nepal on May 12, dozens died. This was the second earthquake within weeks of the first one that occurred on April 25 and killed more than 8,000 people died . What makes Nepal more vulnerable to earthquakes and what might India have in common with the Himalayan nation? 

Let us look into three broad factors which affect the impact of an earthquake:

Population Density: In Nepal, the population density is 208.99 persons per sq km while in India, it is 382. This makes India more vulnerable, if all things are equal. The population of Nepal is merely 31 million, but over 1.1 million people live in the Kathmandu valley. Kathmandu metropolitan city alone has a population density of 13,225 per square kilometers. In cities in poor countries like Nepal and India, it is not just that the population density is high, many of the recent migrants do not even live in earthquake resistant homes, but in newly constructed, unreinforced-masonry buildings.

Level of economic development: The economic development in Nepal is remarkably low. Quakes cause massive destruction in countries that have fewer resources to prepare for calamities. In contrast, more prosperous countries are more likely to have earthquake resistant buildings. Yet, the monetary cost of an earthquake in prosperous nations is higher because richer countries have more valuable assets to lose. For instance, the earthquake in April is expected to cost Nepal $ 10 billion. This is a relatively small amount of money when compared to the cost of $ 123 billion that Japan paid for the 1995 earthquake in Kobe. The amount of $123 billion was merely 2.5% of Japan's GDP at the time, while $10 billion is nearly 25% of Nepal's GDP. This means that the economy and human beings in low income countries suffer more when natural disasters happen.This is true of India too, which is also a developing country like Nepal. On the Global Hunger Index (GHI) of 2014, Nepal's rank was 44 among the worst ranked 76 countries, while India's rank was 55. Nepal's GDP per capita was 694.10 US $ according to 2013 estimates while India's was 1,498.87 US $ in the same year. 

On September 17th 2015, a 8.3 magnitude earthquake rocked Chile. The death toll, so far, is 12. Chile has strongly enforced, superior building codes. Chile is also a relatively wealthier country with a GDP per capita of 15,732.31 USD in 2013. Even when an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit Chile in 2010, the death toll was merely 486 while tens of thousands of people died in earthquakes of lesser magnitude in China and Haiti.

Distance from the epicenter: As experience with earthquakes tell us, the farther the distance of a place from the epicenter, the lesser the damage However, India and Nepal both lie close to the Himalayan ranges that are notorious for earthquakes The epicenter of the earthquake on May 12 was 70 km south-east of Nepal and measured 7.1 on the Richter Scale.However, far less damage was recorded in India as it lies farther from the epicenter of the recent Nepal quakes. Bihar, a state in eastern India, was close to the epicenter with 16 casualties. When an earthquake hit Indonesia in April 2012, India was not affected much because the seismically active zone off the west coast of Indonesia is 1,500 km far from the east coast of India.  In the earthquake in April, the epicenter was at a distance of 80 km to the northwest of Kathmandu.  Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal were closer to the epicenter and the largest number of casualties were reported there. 

While we cannot do much about the distance from the epicenter, the level of economic development and population density in a country are within the control of policy makers and individuals.