Mock drills being conducted to minimise earthquake damage: Officials

As strong tremors jolted Delhi-NCR and other parts of northern India, officials on Wednesday said awareness programmes and mock drills are some of the measures being taken by the government to minimise earthquake damage.

O P Mishra, the director at the Ministry of Earth Sciences' National Centre for Seismology (NCS), said earthquake risk mitigation awareness programmes are being held and mock drills are also being conducted in order to educate people about the dos and don'ts during an earthquake.

"Earthquake cannot be stopped but its impact can be minimised by various measures. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is the nodal agency to conduct the mock drills in coordination with other institutes and such drills are conducted at regular intervals," Mishra told PTI.

Strong tremors jolted large swathes of north India, including Delhi-NCR, on Tuesday night as an earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan. Mild tremors were felt in Delhi-NCR ..