Srinagar, Dec. 2 -- Jammu and Kashmir has been entirely placed in the newly created highest-risk Zone VI under India's updated seismic zonation map, marking one of the most significant changes in the country's earthquake hazard assessment in decades. The map, released as part of the 2025 Earthquake Design Code by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a few days back, classifies the entire Himalayan arc, including all districts of J&K and Ladakh, in the top danger category.The new zonation is based on internationally accepted probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) methods, which use detailed information on active faults, maximum rupture potential, ground-shaking behaviour and underlying geology. These scientific inputs replace olde...