TL;DR India recorded close to 4,000 earthquakes between August 2019 and June 2026, with seismic activity concentrated in the Himalayan and Northeastern states. While over 90% of the recorded earthquakes were below magnitude 4, the data highlight the country’s persistent seismic risk and the importance of monitoring, preparedness, and resilient infrastructure.

Context

The devastating earthquakes witnessed across the world in recent months, from the deadly twin earthquakes in Venezuela to major tremors in the Philippines, Japan, and Afghanistan, have once again highlighted the destructive potential of seismic events. Beyond the immediate loss of life and damage to infrastructure, such disasters serve as a reminder that millions of people continue to live in regions vulnerable to earthquakes, making preparedness and resilient infrastructure critical to reducing future losses.

While India does not experience earthquakes as frequently as countries along the Pacific Ring of Fire, large parts of the country remain vulnerable to seismic activity. The Himalayan belt, Northeast India, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and parts of western India are among the most earthquake-prone regions. As urbanisation accelerates and populations concentrate in vulnerable areas, understanding where and how often earthquakes occur becomes increasingly important. An analysis of earthquake data offers insights into India’s seismic landscape and the regions most exposed to future risks.

Who compiles this data?
The data is sourced from the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the Government of India’s nodal agency for earthquake monitoring. Operating under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, NCS maintains a nationwide seismic network and records earthquake events across India and other countries.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to this?

A clean and structured dataset containing year, month, time of origin, location, latitude, longitude, depth, and magnitude details for earthquake events in India and other countries is available on Dataful.

Key Insights

• Between 2020 and June 2026, the National Centre for Seismology recorded 3,907 earthquakes across India. The annual earthquake counts remained consistently high, with more than 500 earthquakes recorded each year from 2020 to 2025, except in 2022.

• 2023 recorded the highest number of earthquakes, followed by 2024 and 2020. As of 30 June 2026, 704 earthquakes had already been recorded in 2026, exceeding the total reported in any previous full year.

• The distribution of earthquakes across India is far from uniform. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim accounted for a large share of the country’s recorded earthquakes during the period. Most of these states lie in the Himalayan and Northeastern seismic belts, where the Indian Plate collides with the Eurasian Plate, making the region one of the country’s most seismically active zones.

• Maharashtra is the only non-Himalayan/non-Northeastern state that consistently features among the states recording the highest number of earthquakes, reflecting seismic activity associated with intraplate fault systems, including the Koyna-Warna region.

• One notable pattern in the data is Sikkim, which recorded 132 earthquakes in the first six months of 2026, compared with a combined 48 earthquakes between 2020 and 2025. This sharp increase is due to a temporary “earthquake swarm”. Instead of snapping all at once to cause one giant disaster, two major local fault systems, the Tista Fault and the Main Central Thrust (MCT), are “unzipping” in a domino effect. This allows the Earth to safely bleed off massive tectonic pressure through dozens of tiny, harmless micro-quakes.

• At the same time, the overall increase in earthquakes could also be because of improvements in recording earthquakes. According to a response in Lok Sabha from August 2025, the number of seismic observatories has increased from about 84 stations in 2014 to 168 operational observatories in 2025.

• For the analysis, the earthquakes have been categorized into the following categories based on their magnitudes-

• The vast majority of earthquakes recorded in India between August 2019 and June 2026 were Minor or Light. Together, these two categories accounted for nine in every ten earthquakes recorded during the period.

• Earthquakes of Moderate magnitude were much less frequent, while Strong and Major earthquakes were relatively rare. No earthquake of magnitude 7 or above was recorded during the period.

• The highest magnitude reported during this period in India was 6.4 in Assam on 28 April 2021. Another major earthquake reported was in Jammu and Kashmir on 24 September 2019 with a magnitude of 6.

• Among all the earthquakes reported by NCS in the same time period, the highest magnitude was 8.2, recorded in Alaska Peninsula on 29 July 2021.

Why does it matter?

Earthquakes are an unavoidable natural hazard, but their impact depends on where they occur and how well communities are prepared. This analysis highlights the regions that experience the most seismic activity in India, the frequency and magnitude of recorded earthquakes, and how improvements in seismic monitoring have enhanced the detection of smaller events. Understanding these patterns can help inform disaster preparedness, urban planning, and infrastructure resilience in earthquake-prone regions.

Key Numbers

• 3,907 — Earthquakes recorded across India (2020–June 2026)

• 605 → 704 — Highest annual count (2023) → Earthquakes recorded by June 2026

• 9 in 10 — Earthquakes were below magnitude 4

• 6.4 — Highest magnitude recorded in India (Assam, April 2021)

• 84 → 168 — Seismic observatories in India (2014 → 2025)