Though Patna witnessed rampant construction in the last couple of decades in the recent years this phenomenon got further boost. Yet the tragedy is that all norms and rules were thrown to the wind in the construction of these concrete structures. With more and more craze to buy flats, commercial complexes, mega-marts and malls nobody is bothering to even check the quality and safety of these buildings. Not only that, several private hospitals––not government––have come up. But, it is feared, that they too may get reduced to tombs once––God forbid––even a quake of moderate magnitude hits the city. Quake-resistant structure is simply not heard of as the builders want to have much bigger margin.

The saddest aspect is that instead of questioning the safety aspects of these structures the media is busy praising this rapid expansion in this sector. Instead of cornering the authorities, who are passing such unsafe structures, it is day in and day out, hailing the growth of Patna. The role of media creates suspicion as to whether there is some builder-media-politician nexus in this absurd concretization of Patna or not.

Till a couple of decades back one used to find lot of thatched (khapdail) houses even in the urban centres of north Bihar, for example, Darbhanga. The logic of the old-timers was simple. As the region falls in the seismic zone the collapse of thatched houses would cause much less casualties than the concrete ones. Now even in the deep interior villages of this region we have big palatial concrete houses symbolizing our definition of development. The quake-cum-tsunami of Japan has exposed the vulnerability of development. This notwithstanding the fact that the Land of Rising Sun took all sorts of care in building cities and towns and people given proper training.

Though Patna high court recently raised alarm over such mushrooming of structures in the state capital yet there is no dearth of part-time pen-pushers in media and academic ridiculing the judiciary for being backward minded.

Why learn from Japan when we ourselves have our Latur and Gujarat earthquakes. Though death is best leveller yet a close sociological study revealed that perhaps the earthquake is one natural calamity which is more cruel to the rich than poor.

While Latur witnessed more casualties the villages around it had slightly lesser number of death and destruction. Similarly in Gujarat the big cities and towns witnessed much higher loss of lives than deep interior or Runn of Kutch. That was simply because there was no sky-scrapper in the villages. So those living in them had to pay much more fatal price than the have-nots.

Earthquakes, floods, cyclones, etc are too devastating natural calamities to be left just to the scientists, engineers or experts. Only a couple of weeks back this correspondent had got an opportunity to meet a Geologist working in the United States. The topic was obviously earthquake. No doubt structures in the United States are not like in India and all measures are taken for the safety of human life yet natural calamity can cause devastation beyond one’s imagination.

What the gentleman said, perhaps rather unwittingly, surprised me. He said that the buildings in his country can withstand even nuclear bomb. May be true. But what when energy amounting to 16,000 atom bombs is created as it happened in recent tsunami in Japan?

As other experts this Geologist failed to explain what will be the use of such intact buildings as nuclear attack will certainly kill all the inhabitants. The structure may not be destroyed but radiation and other impacts of the nuclear attack would be there for years to come.

But rest assured: In India, especially in our upcoming Patna, any earthquake––God forbid, do not talk of nuclear attack––of much lesser magnitude than the one which hit Munger on January 15, 1934 (8.3 on Richter scale) or Darbhanga and adjoining areas on August 21, 1988, will cause much larger number of casualty.

Perhaps keeping in mind too much importance given to technocrats and experts the Planning Commission has recently made it compulsory to seek the opinion of anthropologists and social activists before taking up big dams and other water projects.

It has been observed that engineers are far removed from human considerations while planning and executing a project. Concerns of displacement and rehabilitation of project-affected people and farmers are not addressed while conceiving a project.

Taking hint from what the Planning Commission had done on the construction of big water projects, help of environmentalists and social activists should be taken before allowing the rampant growth of structures in the cities and towns. One will have to concede that science and technology have their limitations and nature should not be provoked too much. So if in spite of all the measures nuclear energy plants have let down the people of Japan, who will take the guarantee of the safety of big dams on the foothills of quake-prone Himalaya.

After all an earthquake in Assam on August 15, 1950 reduced to rubble a hill. Now a field exists on its place. If a quake triggers the collapse of any high dam––once again meant to produce electricity––the water gushing out of it would wipe out thousands of houses even hundreds of kilometers of the epicenter.

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