The University of Kashmir (KU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Talat Ahmad said the devastating 2005 earthquake was not a major earthquake and that a major earthquake will measure eight on the Richter Scale

“The earthquake that we witnessed in 2005 was not a major earthquake. A major earthquake will be around eight on Richter scale,” KU V-C said in an exclusive interview with Brighter Kashmir Editor-in-Chief Farooq Ahmad Wani.
More than 80,000 people had perished as a result of the 2005 quake, while an estimated 4 million others were left homeless. The earthquake had hit Jammu and Kashmir on October 8, 2005 in wee hours.
He said that Kashmir is an important part of Himalayan region and that Himalayas are seismically active.
“Kashmir falls in Zone 5 and we should be prepared for any eventuality. The only good thing for us that there has to be smaller earthquakes so that pressure is released time and again from Himalayas. In such way we won’t face any measure earthquake which could be disastrous,” he said.
The VC said that there are lots of dark zones in central Himalayas where no earthquakes have taken place for quite some time. “Prime example of this is Uttarakhand. There are chances and we need to be cautious,” the VC said.
He said that the casualty that takes place during the earthquake is not because of the earthquake itself but because of the wrong construction that is in place.
“Bad planning of construction and the raw material that we use in construction are the prime source of the deaths in our part of the world,” he said.
Giving examples of Japan, the V-C said: “Big earthquakes take place in Japan but we see less or no causalities there while score of people die in our region. We use heavy construction material in the sub-continent which is why there are a lot of causalities,” he said.
He said that Kashmir’s culture is very old and the intellectual people here use wood and brick model. “The intellectual people use wood and brick model. If earthquake hits, at least some brick would rather be thrown out unlike big chunks of marble or granite. We should prefer lighter construction material that marble. Light wood can absorb shocks,” he said.
He said various shrines in Kashmir are made up of wood and are still in standing while many modern concrete buildings using heavy material have collapsed.
He said that floods is another aspect in Kashmir which needs to be looked at from different prism. “Floods in 2014 happened because of cloudburst. These cloudbursts could have happened because of the environmental changes. There are lots of climate changes. Sometimes we see no rain while sometimes there are more rains. Likewise, sometimes there is less snow and sometimes there is more snow,” the V-C said during the interview with Brighter Kashmir.
He said there is a lot of deforestation happening in Kashmir and other parts of Himalayas. “Because of the deforestation, we see soil erosion. This soil gets loosen and reach water bodies. And in turn the water bodies become shallower,” he said.
He said Kashmir has also witnessed large scale landslides and the V-C blamed illogical road constructions for the landslides.
“Landslides happen in Kashmir because of road construction. Particular, if we look at big road between Srinagar and Jammu, there are very fragile rocks. It will take time for stabilization of these roads,” he said.
The V-C said: “We need to survey about what are the alternative routes which could be affective if there are bigger landslides or avalanches that we witness on Jammu-Srinagar as well as on Mughal road.”
He said that because of no proper engineering people face a lot of difficulties and many people have died too.
“Proper engineering works should be done. And we should take help from the already existence surveys that are done by the geogical survey,” the V-C said.