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The Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt extending upto Andaman-Nicobar island region, is known to be one of the seismically active belts of the world.
The country had experienced the effects of five damaging earthquakes, which had occurred along this belt during the last about two decades. These include the Uttarkashi (1991), Chamoli (1999), Sumatra (2004), Muzaffarabad (2005) and Sikkim-Nepal (2011) earthquakes.
The Indian Peninsular shield region has also witnessed three earthquakes viz., Latur (1993), Jabalpur (1997) and Bhuj (2001), during this period.
Bureau of Indian Standards [IS-1893 (Part-1): 2002], based on the past seismic history, grouped the country into four seismic zones, viz. Zone-II, -III, -IV and –V. Of these, Zone V is the most seismically active region
The Modified Mercalli (MM) intensity, which measures the impact of the earthquakes on the surface of the earth, broadly associated with various zones, is as follows:


                       Seismic Zone                                                   Intensity on MM scale


             II (Low intensity zone)                                                    VI (or less)
             III (Moderate intensity zone)                                             VII
             IV (Severe intensity zone)                                                 VIII
             V (Very severe intensity zone)                                           IX (and above)