The Bhuj earthquake was something of a watershed in Indian disaster preparedness. Several state governments, most so in the Northeast, and various central ministries were shocked into a comprehension of the dangers. However, national capital New Delhi, which is under perpetual latent seismic threat, is blissfully unattended. Neither the local nor the Union government has initiated any measures to protect the city.

It is true that Delhi is unlikely to be at the epicentre of a moderate to large earthquake. The highest earthquake magnitude experienced in Delhi in about a century was on July 27, 1960. It registered 5.6 on the Richter scale. Some buildings in the New Delhi area were partially damaged during that quake. A seismic damage survey, by the Central Public Works Department (cpwd), put the damage at about Rs 5 lakh.

In seismological lexicon, a moderate or major earthquake (magnitude 7.0 or more) causes two types of damages. The first, commonly known as epicentral damage, is confined to a 50