Mega mock drill carried out to gauge earthquake preparedness

Seven district headquarters in Himachal Pradesh today witnessed a mega mock drill to gauge the preparedness in disaster management in case of an high intensity earthquake.
The exercise was conducted simultaneously in Shimla, Solan, Mandi, Kullu, Kinnaur, Chamba and Kangra districts with epicenter between Sundernagar and Mandi to find out the strength and gaps in disaster management preparedness in case of a high intensity earthquake, chief secretary V C Pharka said.
The State Disaster Management Authority, army, ITBP, NDRF, police, civil defence, fire brigade, and other departments participated in the mock drill.
Five to six highly vulnerable places were selected in each district headquarter. Different types of post-disaster situations were created to check their preparedness, Pharka said.

The mock drill was organised as a major area of the state is in the seismic zone and 25 per cent area fall under seismic zone V, Tarun Shridhar, Additional Chief Secretary and head of disaster management, said, adding the performance of response teams during the exercise was "good".
He said the relief and rescue operations were conducted presuming 582 casualties and 1731 injuries.