Addressing a press conference here, Gupta said at least 17,000 people would die if an earthquake with a magnitude of 8 at the Richter Scale hit Aizawl in the middle of the night.
He said that the death toll, in such a case would be at least eight lakh if the tremor hit the entire north east.
He lauded the efforts of the Mizoram government in setting up and training police personnel for the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF).
The NDMA, in collaboration with the Mizoram State Disaster Management Authority (MSDMA) today conducted Mega Mock Drill on earthquake preparedness and mass Awareness at five places each in Aizawl and Serchhip district and also in Nagaland (Kohima and Dimapur), Manipur (Imphal and Thoubal), Tripura (Agartala and Ambassa) and Silchar in Assam.
NDMA officials said that these areas lie in seismic zones V and therefore their vulnerability to earthquake hazards has been a matter of serious concern.
The Mock Exercise took place in different locations which included places like hospitals, residential complex, educational institutes, and government institutes.
NDRF, Civil Defense, Civil Society Organizations and independent observers from Army, Paramilitary forces took active part in the mega exercise while the emergency support functionaries like police, health, fire, ambulance, civil defense, power and PWD also participated.