The Union home ministry’s disaster management experts have warned of a bigger catastrophe, earthquakes with a magnitude of 8.2 or greater on the Richter scale which may hit the already ruptured Himalayan region.

An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude was recorded some time back near Chitral in Northwest Pakistan and after the horrific earthquake of October 8th 2005, another massive earthquake of 7.7 magnitude jolted the Northern regions. Two days ago, Northeast Indian hill state of Manipur was jolted by an earthquake of 6.7 magnitude.

Some international seismology experts belive that after north eastern part of India was hit by a series of earthquakes, there is a fear of at least four earthquakes to hit Himalaya regions.

Speaking to TOI, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) director Santosh Kumar said the interconnected plates across Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and India pose a bigger danger, and predicted a disaster of bigger magnitude that awaits hill states and parts of Bihar, UP and even Delhi which fall under the second worst seismic Zone IV classification. The North-East and other hill states fall under severe seismic Zone V.

This could also spell danger for the Northern areas of Pakistan including Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan as the aftershocks could rattle the region and prove to be fatal in nature.