Earthquakes have always created curiosity in human minds since ancient times, however the scientific methods to predict earthquakes are still a nascent science despite the rapid strides it has been making. The development of this science during the last few decades is largely due to concurrent developments in instrumental geophysics, computational science and modeling, more detailed geological information and an array of space based multispectral data collection systems. The huge costs of earthquake damages have also lead policy makers to seek more information and hazard management has become an important element in modern day governance.
The Indian subcontinent has been witnessing varying dimensions and diversity of natural disasters and ironically in the last decade of the millennium, which was the United Nation’s International Decade for Disaster Mitigation; we were subject to some major disasters. The first few years of the millennium has already taken a toll that is far higher than all the death and property loss through natural disasters in entire the history of the sub-continent.
An array of disasters like earthquakes, cyclones, floods, tsunami etc have visited the subcontinental region over the last 4-5 years and a lot more efforts are being put to enrich the scientific knowledge as well develop various models to refine our understanding of a particular event and interrelationships among the different events. Scientists believe that the task is still a game of chance, indicating that the prediction of time and space of a particular event is still a far cry.
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