People in Gujarat state are trying to rebuild their lives after India's worst earthquake in almost 50 years. The earthquake affected an area the size of Wales, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale on 26th January 2001 at 8.46 am local time. Further aftershocks added to the devastation. 30,000 people are thought to have died, but the full death toll may never be known as thousands more may have been buried beneath the rubble.

This was the first tectonic activity in the region for seven years. Geologists believe that during this period, pressure was building up as the Indo-Australian plate is pushing towards the Eurasian plate on a collision plate margin. But earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do. Rapid urbanisation combined with population growth in parts of Gujarat means that there are less open spaces in urban areas and more people are at risk. Worst hit was the city of Bhuj, located near the epicentre of the earthquake. Whole villages surrounding the city were flattened.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, people were in a race against time as they helped rescue teams to dig through the debris in search of survivors. International rescue teams used thermal imaging technology to track down signs of people buried under the rubble, and the Indian government used extra aircraft to fly some of the injured to other urban centres like Mumbai (Bombay). Emergency services were at breaking point in their attempts to cope with the thousands of injured, and to provide food, water and clothing for the half a million homeless, who had to bear baking temperatures during the day and bitterly cold temperatures sleeping out at night. The growing threat of disease added urgency to the relief effort, and some areas ran short of the firewood needed to cremate the dead.

In Bhuj, modern high rise buildings made of reinforced concrete were badly hit. Walls and floors pulled away because of the tremors, causing flats to crash to the ground.

� Popperfoto/Reuters.

Two months after the earthquake, many people still sleep out in the open, and the exact death toll is still unknown. Some towns and villages remain so badly damaged that many people have decided to move elsewhere, and some towns may be abandoned altogether.

Lying close to a plate margin means that the people of Gujarat will continue to live with the threat of earthquake activity, but all earthquakes are different, and next time another area could be affected. In the future, an international rescue system could help to respond to such disasters more quickly. Locally, lessons can be learned to reduce the threat to life. Buildings need to be designed so that they can withstand tremors, but the authorities have a difficult job in checking building standards in the rapidly growing towns and cities.