The frequency of earthquakes appears to have increased in the Indian subcontinent. However, India’s preparedness for mitigating their impact has significant gaps. Discuss various aspects.

Introduction: Around 59% of India's landmass lies in moderate-to-severe seismic zones III to V — roughly 11% in the highest Zone V — a consequence of the Indian plate pushing beneath the Eurasian plate along the Himalaya. Rising population and unregulated construction make every tremor costlier, even where the underlying frequency is debated.

Why impact appears to be rising: dense, poorly built urban growth in high-risk zones — Guwahati and Srinagar in Zone V, Delhi in Zone IV, and the megacities of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in Zone III — sharply raises exposure, while reservoir-induced seismicity and unplanned hillside cutting add local stress.

Gaps in preparedness:

• Construction: weak enforcement of the IS 1893 seismic code; soft-storey buildings, illegal vertical additions, and almost no retrofitting of older schools and hospitals built before the code matured.
• Systems: limited earthquake early-warning coverage, a thin pool of trained masons and engineers, and patchy seismic microzonation beyond a handful of cities.
• Response: uneven State Disaster Response Force strength and a shortage of search-and-rescue equipment at the district level.

Existing framework: NDMA's earthquake guidelines, the National Building Code, IS 1893 and the National Earthquake Risk Mitigation Project provide clear direction that implementation under-delivers.

Conclusion: Earthquakes don't kill people — unsafe buildings do. Mandatory code compliance, retrofitting of lifeline structures, city-scale microzonation and large-scale mason training would close most of the gap and turn a recurring tragedy into a managed risk.