National Center for Seismology (NCS) is the nodal agency of the Government of India for monitoring earthquake activity in the country. NCS maintains the National Seismological Network of more than 150 stations each having state of art equipment and spreading all across the country.NCS monitors earthquake activity all across the country through its 24x7 around-the-clock monitoring center. NCS also monitors earthquake swarm and aftershock by deploying a temporary observatory close to the affected region.

Apart from earthquake monitoring, NCS is also actively involved in Seismic Hazard Microzonation and seismological research. The major activities currently being pursued by the NCS are:

1. Earthquake monitoring on a 24X7 basis.
2. Operation and maintenance of national seismological network comprising of more than 150 Stations.
3. Maintenance of Seismological data center and information services.
4. Seismic hazard microzonation related studies.
5. Aftershock/Earthquake swarm monitoring/survey.
6. Understanding of Earthquake processes.
7. Public outreach.

Monitoring Background:

The history of instrumental earthquake monitoring in India dates back to 1898 when the first seismological observatory of the country was established at  Alipore  (Calcutta) on 1 December 1898 after the great Shillong plateau earthquake of  1897.  The occurrence of devastating earthquakes such as the 1905 Kangra earthquake, 1934 Nepal-Bihar, Assam, and many other strong earthquakes, necessitated strengthening the national seismological network progressively from a paltry 6 in 1940 to 8 in 1950, 15 in 1960, and 18 in 1970. The early 1960s marked a very important landmark in the history of seismic monitoring when the WWSSN(World Wide Standardized Seismic Network) stations started functioning globally.