WILL it quake or will it not? That is thetopic being hotly debated by seismologists and environmentalists regardingthe Tehri dam project in Tehri Garhwal,Uttar Pradesh (up). The latest in the rowis a startling finding by a group of scientists of the Roorkee University,up, who say that the dam wouldprevent future earthquakes in theGarhwal region. They have alsoconcluded that the devastatingUttarkashi earthquake of 1991could have been prevented had thedam been there. Several scientistsand environmentalists had earlierpredicted major earthquakes in theregion if the dam came up.
The studies have pinpointed the origin of the next great quake at a spotclose to where the reservoir load willbe at its maximum, in case the dam isbuilt. The huge body of water acts likea load on the fault lines numbing thepre-shocks that could lead to the bigquake. Thus, the reservoir, if built,would delay or arrest the next greatquake.