State wide earthquake mock exercise to be organized on 6th June
Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (HPSDMA) will organise the 9th State-wide earthquake mock exercise in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority simultaneously in all the districts of the State on 6 June, 2025.
An orientation and coordination workshop was organized for all the stakeholders here today for this exercise where Principal Advisor, National Disaster Management Authority Major General (Rtd.) Sudhir Bahl gave detailed information on the outline and action plan of the mega mock exercise based on earthquake through virtual medium. Apart from the officers present at the state level, Deputy Commissioners, members of the District Disaster Management Team and Sub-Divisional level officers also participated in this workshop through virtual medium.
Sudhir Bahl said that the objective of this mega mock exercise is to test and strengthen the coordination and readiness among various departments, agencies and people of the state to deal with natural disasters like earthquake. Also, during the mock exercise, the functioning of emergency services, relief and rescue operations and availability of resources are to be practically tested.
He said that in view of this mega mock exercise, a table top exercise will be conducted on June 3 for which the heads and nodal officers of all the concerned departments have been asked to ensure their presence. He said that district and sub-division level officers will participate in this table top exercise through virtual medium.
Sudhir Bahl said that being a hilly state, about 70 percent of the population of the state lives in earthquake sensitive zones four and five. Moreover, the state is also sensitive to other types of natural disasters. He said that if the state prepares itself to deal with earthquake through this mega mock exercise, then preparations will automatically be made for other disasters as well.
Director and Special Secretary (Revenue-Disaster) D.C Rana gave detailed information about the preparations being made by the HPSDMA for state wide mega mock exercise. He said that with the joint efforts of the SMDAMA and NDMA, this mega mock exercise will prove to be an important step towards disaster management in the state as the state will be able to review the preparations and the ability to deal with other disasters will also be strengthened.
At the state level, senior officers of various departments including administration, police, NDRF, Deepak Project, ITBP were also present in this workshop.
