The earthquake on Wednesday morning that had its epicenter in Assam has been categorized by seismologists as a major one and not only Arunachal Pradesh and entire Northeast, even parts of North Bengal felt the impact. It must be an intervention from the Divine that despite the high magnitude no deaths were reported (till evening) and damages were restricted to properties only. However, for all the states of the region the earthquake should serve as a wake-up call to keep their respective disaster management mechanisms well-prepared and technically updated. This is only because no technology as of now has been developed that can prevent an earthquake’s occurrence. All that can be done is to fine-tune the post-disaster preparedness and the more high level it is, more lives of people can be saved. It’s not without reasons disaster management is a full-fledged subject now, throwing up wide career opportunities.

India’s seismological facts are harsh indeed since around 59 % of its geographical area is prone to occurrence of earthquakes ranging from moderate to major magnitudes and the history of last two decades which saw disasters in Manipur (2016), Sikkim (2011), Bhuj (2001), Chamoli (1999) and Latur (1993), among many, will corroborate it. In a more specific finding, the Earthquake Disaster Risk Index (EDRI) prepared by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in association with IIIT-Hyderabad published in December 2019 showed that about 56% area of India is vulnerable to moderate to major earthquakes which are packed with almost 82% of the entire population. NE's concern is always a 365-day affair as geomorphologically it falls under Zone V of the seismic map of India and the above index that covered 50 cities from high seismic zones and based on population density, housing threat factor and other parameters has shown that state capital Itanagar falls under the ‘high risk with medium hazard’ category, along with Guwahati, Dispur, Imphal, Shillong, Kohima and Agartala among the region’s cities. The index gave valuable insights regarding the ideal structural science ought to be followed while making housing constructions to minimise post-disaster losses in terms of lives and properties. While it’s no doubt essential, any earthquake or disaster preparedness plan of action will remain incomprehensive without the backup of an army of personnel technically well-trained for rescue efforts. Arunachal must take this aspect seriously and the just-concluded state level training for community volunteers for disaster response should be made a compulsory year-round affair.  

It must not be that an earthquake or any similar disaster should occur to wake up the stakeholders. Prior and just preparedness is a must and besides the state government, academia from the relevant fields and industry must also join hands to build up an ideal disaster response apparatus in Arunachal Pradesh.