Tura, March 20, 2025: As part of the State Level Mock Exercise 2025, an earthquake simulating an 8.3 magnitude of earthquake disaster and related scenario was held in West Garo Hills district on 20th March, 2025. The exercise was organized by the District Disaster Management Authority, Tura in collaboration with the Meghalaya State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), Shillong and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), New Delhi.

The exercise involves all line departments and aims to enhance and improve the preparedness of emergency response teams such as the Medical, Fire & Emergency Services and others who would be the first responders if such an emergency arose in future. Moreover, the mock exercise was held keeping in mind the fact that the area falls under the zone five category of the earthquake prone area and also to create awareness on disaster preparedness, mitigation and response in case of disaster as well as to ensure that communities and volunteers are well equipped to handle such emergencies.

The operation sites for the State Level Mock Exercise have been identified at District Council Office Building, Tura, Tura Civil Hospital, Tura, Tura Super Market, St. Xavier’s Secondary School, Tura and Deran Gittim, Tura. The Incident Command Post (ICP) and Planning Section (PS) are at Circuit House, Tura while the Operation Section (OS), Staging Area (SA), Relief Camp (RC), Logistic Section (LS) are at Tura Government College and Base and Camp is at Tura Government College.

The exercise commenced from 9:30 AM with the sounding of the siren, signalling the start of the exercise and the whole exercise of evacuation, search and rescue operation, providing first aid treatment and triage before being shifted by ambulances to hospitals saw an active participation from officers of the district, Civil Defence, MPRO, Police, Health, Fire and Emergency Services, Volunteers and other line departments.

Similarly, after the exercise, simultaneous online de-briefing with all the districts was organized at NIC, Tura where Deputy Commissioner, West Garo Hills, Jagdish Chelani, Superintendent of Police, West Garo Hills, Tura Abraham T Sangma, District Disaster Management Officer, Tura, James D Sangma, Senior Observer Hubert B Marak, Retd. IAS and Former Deputy Commissioner, Additional Deputy Commissioners and other Officers from the district attended the de-briefing session.