My hometown is Jaipur, located in the western state of Rajasthan, India. According to the Nathan Map, this town has a low frequency and intensity for Hail Storms, Wildfire hazard and Extratropical/ Winter storms. Although, it has a frequency zone of 2 for Earthquakes and Tornadoes. It lies in the no anomalies region during the El Nino and La Nina. Living there for about 18 years, I have never experienced a tornado. However, I have experienced two earthquakes which were low on the Richter scale. Firstly, I feel the Nathan Map should not put Jaipur or nearby areas in the Zone 2 for Tornadoes. Secondly, I feel it is good for a broad overview for natural hazards in areas but not good for looking up specific cities or regions. It should have a zoom in feature as it is hard to determine in which category certain areas fall in.

I choose the region of Bandar-e Lengeh, Iran, Middle East that recently faced an Earthquake of 3.8 magnitude and Nathan’s maps made it clear that Jaipur can experience the same disaster as well. Earthquakes cause ground shaking which can risk ground displacement, flooding, fire, buildings breaking etc. As Rajasthan has two major rivers out of which one is perennial, Jaipur isn’t near any of those therefore there is almost no chance of flooding. Jaipur also doesn’t have very high buildings, hence both these factors make it less vulnerable. The most recent earthquake in Jaipur was also of a 3.8 which did not cause any damage. As both of the earthquakes were of same and not very high intensity, both did not cause any damage in the areas, however I’d say the situation in the Bandar-E-Lengeh region and in Jaipur are quite the same, as both are not very highly vulnerable to damage caused by earthquakes as the earthquake magnitudes are not very large. However, looking into Jaipur city, people in different areas do face different vulnerabilities, for example : there is a old city area where the houses are not built properly and the area has highly congested buildings. As it is a historical part of the city, the people refuse to move out or renovate the buildings, making their lives more vulnerable and exposing themselves to huge dangers when earthquakes hit as the buildings are not very strong and can fall, causing a lot of damage to the area and killing a lot of people. However other areas in the city do have relatively new, strong structures, planned out properly therefore making people living in those areas less vulnerable when compared to people living in the old part of the city. Therefore, I’d suggest people should not ignore the warnings and guidelines when constructing buildings as it is necessary to make quake-resistant buildings so that the city is less vulnerable.

According to the Disaster Management and Relief Department of Rajasthan, a part of Jaipur lies in the moderate damage zone from earthquakes ( Siesmic Zone – 3) while most of the city area lies in low damage zone from earthquakes ( Siesmic Zone – 2). As this department states Jaipur does not face risks from any other natural hazards and my own experience as well tells me the same, this makes me question again why Nathan’s Map puts Jaipur under Zone 2 for tornadoes. From my personal experience, Jaipur has faced about 5-6 earthquakes with the highest of 4.5 in magnitude, making me realize that with low magnitude earthquakes, the damage can be handled. Hence, I would suggest the government to make stricter rules and guidelines for people constructing new buildings that they are made quake-resistant to an extent. Also, I would suggest the old city area should be evaluated again, so that the old buildings can be renovated and be less vulnerable to damage. This would make the city less vulnerable and can help people prevent damage from earthquakes in the city. [1]

In order to make Jaipur even less vulnerable to natural hazards, apart from the improving building guidelines and renovating old city area strategy,  town needs to increase its sustainable development. So far, the emergency services concentrate on human accidents, as the town does not face other disasters much often. But it should be prepared before any disaster hits. To reduce harm, emergency response should increase which leads to increasing emergency resources like police stations, firefighter stations, hospitals etc. These resources should be available in each neighborhood in a town, instead of each town and specially in the old city area. Once if large magnitude earthquake hits, only one source in the town would be the reason for people to lose lives. Personally speaking, I can only email the Jaipur governance manager and suggest my idea to them, as well as tell my friends and relatives to do the same. Once they get a notification from more than one person, they might put these ideas into consideration and perform an action towards it.

[1] Disaster Management and Relief Department, Government of Rajasthan. (2016) Retrieved from http://www.dmrelief.rajasthan.gov.in/index.php/citizen-charter/maps-of-rajasthan/earthquake-zones