India, Feb. 18 -- Dinesh Kumar, 43, lives with his elderly mother in a flat on the first floor of a residential tower in Signature View Apartment, Mukherjee Nagar - a complex that IIT-Delhi in a November 2022 report had declared "unfit for habitation".

Kumar usually takes the stairs, dilapidated though they are - residents have been told that the lift structure is also damaged and should be sparingly used. However, his 75-year-old mother has arthritis, and can only move out using the lift.

On Monday morning, Kumar was left feeling helpless - a magnitude 4.0 earthquake, which had its epicentre in the Capital, left his entire building shaking. The 43-year-old was unable to exit his flat - he couldn't decide which was the more dangerous ro...