Earthquakes have claimed a large number of human lives over the history of mankind. The Bihar-Nepal earthquake of 1988 is a very recent experience which has caused.untold miseries to many. A major earthquake adversely affects practically all facets of human activity and jeopardises the total functioning of the society, besides becoming a big economic burden on the country taking back its development by several years. Earthquakes are known for their suddenness in occurence and severeness of losses. Devastating destructions can take place in a matter’ of few seconds without any prior warning. The losses caused by an earthquake include collapse of land massess, houses, work places, schools, colleges, hospital buildings and damage or failure of dams and reservoirs and critical facilities involving hazardous substances. Each of these actions may result in heavy loss of human/cattle lives. Although the occurence of earthquakes is not restricted to any particular region or society, the rural poor and under-privileged masses are invariably the most vuinerable and always the worst hit. It is true we cannot stop the occurence of this natural phenomena causing disasters, but surely their impact on human life and property can be considérably reduced through protective, preventive and ameliorative planning measures.