At 11.30 on Wednesday morning a siren sounded across Delhi announcing the beginning of a massive emergency drill. The idea was to test the city’s preparedness and response to an earthquake measuring 7.9 on richter scale.

Delhi comes under seismic zone 4 which is a high-risk classification and an earthquake of this magnitude could cause colossal damage.

The drill was conducted across nine districts in the capital at selected vulnerable spots such as malls, schools, bridges, markets, colleges, metro stations, cinema halls and government buildings.
At the AIIMS metro station, immediately after the siren, the civil defence personnel and the Delhi police officials helped in evacuating people. All this was done smoothly as people had prior information about the drill. Escalators were stopped and all the exit points were opened. People outside the station were stopped from entering. The civil defence personnel posed as dummy patients. There was a medical disaster team of six to seven doctors at the station to provide immediate treatment to the victims. All looked like a planned exercise, however, the truth is that disaster comes unannounced.

A metro official said, “We have the first aid facility available at all stations. This medical team was called for the drill.”

At V3S mall in East Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar, it led to a bit of initial confusion. Soon the mall administration was seen asking people to vacate the place. People here lazily moved out of the mall sporting a smile and making it apparent that they knew there wasn’t any real danger staring in their face. Later the MCD, the Delhi police and other activists stepped in. But there was some confusion about the place from where the ambulance was to pick up the victims. Thermal imaging cameras were used to look for victims in dark or dimly lit areas.     

The scene at Deshbandhu College in Kalkaji extension was a little different. A few students knew that a mock drill was underway. The drill began almost half an hour after the specified time leading to confusion. Most students were either playing cricket or were out in the play ground. According to the incident commander Anant Jay Bhatt, “This was a mock drill to test our preparedness and we noticed that the ambulance and the fire tenders had not arrived.”
Irate teachers were questioning the administration’s decision to inform them only half an hour in advance. Some students did not seem bothered by the slew of policemen moving around on their campus. “I have no clue about what is going on. The police came to our classrooms and shunted us out. Who cares? We got some free time,” said Rohit, a student.  

Dr Madan Mohan Malviya Government Hospital in South Delhi district was one of the identified tertiary care centre for the drill. The drill started on time but the hospital administration decided not to blow the emergency sirens as it would lead to chaos in the hospital and affect patients. So the drill was conducted without the participation of general people present there. But patients, their kin and other visitors were informed about the drill by the hospital administration. Twenty eight volunteers, 15 doctors, 21 civil defence officials and several other staff from various agencies like Jal board and MCD along with Delhi disaster management authority (DDMA) South officials participated in the drill. Public relations officer Dr Anuradha said that since the hospital building was earthquake proof it was assumed that there would be minor injuries inside the hospital. Volunteers posing injured from nearby areas were brought to the hospital and given first aid. Ambulance brought injured people from other national disaster management authority (NDMA)-identified venues. The doctors were quick in their response and the hospital staff was swift in shifting the injured.

Chief medical officer Dr Sunil Kumar, who was in the disaster ward, explained that the patients were put under four categories defined by a particular colour.
Green colour was for people with minor bruises and who could be discharged immediately, yellow for injured to be kept under observation for some time, red for grievously injured and black for the dead. The different colour stripes were pasted on the prescription of the patients. The electricity was cut and battery operated medical equipment were used during the mock drill. However, no evacuation drill was done in the hospital. No actual injury was reported by the authorities.

The drill was conducted by the DDMA along with the NDMA. Mass messaging (through SMSes) was on since last week to inform as many people as possible about the drill. All the government agencies like MTNL, Delhi fire services, Delhi police and traffic, Delhi Jal board, MCD, DTC were roped in for this exercise.
 
With inputs from Rohan Ramesh, Jasleen Kaur, Tanvi Nalin and Pooja Bhattacharjee