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The M w 6.9 Sikkim–Nepal earthquake of September 2011: a perspective for

wrench faulting in the Himalayan thrust zone

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DOI: 10.1007/s11069-015-1588-y

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The M w 6.9 Sikkim–Nepal earthquake of
September 2011: a perspective for wrench
faulting in the Himalayan thrust zone

N. Purnachandra Rao, V. M. Tiwari,

M. Ravi Kumar, Pinki Hazarika,
Dipankar Saikia, R. K. Chadha &
Y. J. Bhaskar Rao
Natural Hazards
Journal of the International Society
for the Prevention and Mitigation of
Natural Hazards

ISSN 0921-030X

Nat Hazards
DOI 10.1007/s11069-015-1588-y

1 23
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DOI 10.1007/s11069-015-1588-y

ORIGINAL PAPER

The Mw 6.9 Sikkim–Nepal earthquake of September

2011: a perspective for wrench faulting in the Himalayan
thrust zone

N. Purnachandra Rao • V. M. Tiwari • M. Ravi Kumar •

Pinki Hazarika • Dipankar Saikia • R. K. Chadha • Y. J. Bhaskar Rao

Received: 19 March 2013 / Accepted: 3 January 2015

Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Abstract In the present study, we analyze the strike-slip-type earthquakes along the
Himalayan arc that are transverse to the collision front, with a special emphasis on the
Sikkim region. The study examines seismicity and focal mechanism data in conjunction
with crustal structure derived from receiver functions and gravity gradients, supported by
results from GPS data. We present a relation between the north–south depth distribution of
the strike-slip earthquakes in Sikkim, with the northward dipping trend of the Indian crust
beneath Eurasia deciphered from teleseismic receiver function analysis of data recorded by
our seismic network. Results suggest that transverse faults caused by thrust partitioning
along the Himalayan arc manifest as vertical strike-slip faults cutting across the crust of the
descending Indian plate down to 60 km. Further, we argue in favor of a consistent right-
lateral sense of slip among all the strike-slip-type earthquakes cutting across the Himalayan
arc from Kumaon in the west through Sikkim and Bhutan Himalaya, to the Burmese arc
and the Sagaing fault on the easternmost end. We infer a wrench fault tectonic model for
the Indian plate described by a series of right-lateral strike-slip faults from west to east in
the Himalaya, in conjunction with under-thrusting of the Indian plate beneath Eurasia.

Keywords Sikkim Himalaya
Strike-slip faulting
Transverse fault
Wrench fault

tectonics

1 Introduction

The Himalayan mountain belt that extends over 2,500 km is a unique continent–continent
collision zone involving shallow-angle thrusting of the Indian plate beneath Eurasia. The
large amount of strain accumulated by a relentless plate convergence of *3.5–6.0 cm/year
in the NNE direction with respect to Eurasia generates intense and sustained seismic

N. P. Rao
V. M. Tiwari
M. R. Kumar (&)
P. Hazarika
D. Saikia
R. K. Chadha
Y. J. B. Rao

CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad 500 007, India
e-mail: mravi@ngri.res.in

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activity, of which an absorption of *2 cm/year characterizes the EW-trending Himalayan

arc as one of the most active plate margins on Earth. The severity of earthquake hazard in
the densely populated Indian subcontinent is further exemplified by two great earthquakes
of M [ 8.0 in 1934 and 1950, and one in 1897 to the south of Himalaya, apart from a
myriad of large earthquakes like the 1505, 1803, 1833, 1905 and 1947 earthquakes. Most
of the Himalayan earthquakes are ascribed to thrust tectonics related to north-dipping
decollement planes accommodating plate convergence (Molnar and Qidong 1984).
The other significant mechanism of deformation along Himalaya is the strike-slip
faulting controlled by transverse faults cutting across the arc. The available data of
earthquake focal mechanism solutions during the last four decades of digital recording
(Harvard 2010) indicate a few strike-slip-type earthquakes at regular intervals from Ku-
maon Himalaya in the west through Sikkim and Bhutan Himalaya, the Burmese arc and the
Sagaing fault to the east. While the last two fall in a different tectonic environment, their
mechanisms are similar and broadly belong to an overall India–Eurasia collision process
and its effects.
The recent Mw 6.9 Sikkim earthquake of September 18, 2011, is an example of the
above phenomenon. This earthquake of magnitude 6.9 caused extensive damage in the
northern part of the Indian state of Sikkim and the eastern part of Nepal, with a death toll
exceeding hundred. The epicenter of this quake was located 68 km NW of Gangtok in the
eastern Himalaya (Fig. 1) (USGS 2011). The focal depth of this event as estimated by
different agencies ranges from 47 to 50 km (Harvard 2010; USGS 2010). The complex
structural setting and seismic characteristics of this earthquake in conjunction with data
from previous studies provide an opportunity to re-evaluate the seismogenic processes of
the Himalayan arc. In the current study, it is attempted to understand the strike-slip
earthquakes in Sikkim Himalaya as a manifestation of thrust partitioning due to the under-
thrusting Indian plate beneath the Himalayan arc. The various known faults, seismicity
trends and focal mechanisms in this region, in conjunction with crustal velocity structure
from receiver functions and gravity gradients are examined to decipher the most plausible
mechanism of transverse tectonics in this region. Further, we attempt a general interpre-
tation of the strike-slip-type earthquakes cutting across the Himalayan arc from Kumaon in
the west to the eastern syntaxis connecting with the Burmese arc and the Sagaing fault in

Fig. 1 Seismicity of the Himalayan region during the last four decades, comprising earthquakes of M [ 5.0
(blue circles) and M [ 6.0 (green circles) (source USGS). Red stars indicate Great earthquakes, and yellow
stars indicate large ones (Bilham and Ambraseys 2005), while the red circle indicates the September 18,
2011, earthquake of M6.9 in the Sikkim Himalayan region (red box)

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the east, to propose a unified tectonic model that explains all the transverse fault
movements.

1.1 Sikkim Himalaya

The major structural features of the Sikkim region include the main boundary thrust
(MBT), an overturned main central thrust (MCT) and the NW–SE-trending Tista/Gangtok
lineaments (Fig. 2) (GSI 2000). Interestingly, there are several features that distinguish the
Sikkim region from the rest of the Himalayan arc. The seismicity level has been quite
moderate (Raju et al. 2007) compared to other segments of the Himalaya. The largest
earthquake in the vicinity of the Sikkim region is the 1934 Bihar–Nepal earthquake of
M8.3 to the west. The earthquake focal mechanism solutions in Sikkim are predominantly
strike slip, including the September 18, 2011, earthquake (Fig. 2). This is quite unusual for
the predominantly shallow-angle thrust environment all along the Himalayan front. While

Fig. 2 Seismicity and tectonic map of the Sikkim Himalaya superposed on the gravity gradient anomalies.
The predominantly strike-slip-type CMT solutions from the Harvard catalog and (de la Torre et al. 2007)
have also been included (black previous earthquakes, red September 18, 2011, earthquake), circles M [ 4.5
earthquakes (gray previous earthquakes, red aftershocks of the September 18, 2011, earthquake). KF
Kanchenjunga Fault, MKF Malda-Kishanganj Fault, TL Tista Lineament, GAL Gangtok Lineament, GOL
Golpara Lineament, KL Kopili Lineament, MBT main boundary thrust, MCT main central thrust. Gray
square Gangtok city

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the thrust-type earthquakes generally have shallow foci (\20 km), the strike-slip-type
events, particularly in Sikkim, extend beyond Moho depths. Further, the azimuths of the
principal compressive stress (P) axes of Sikkim earthquakes are mostly NS to NNW unlike
the NNE trends observed for thrust earthquakes along the arc. These observations indicate
a distinct scenario for the Sikkim Himalaya which could signify a transition from a simple
India–Eurasia collision in the west to a more complex setting toward the Eastern Hima-
layan syntaxis zone. Local earthquake monitoring and analysis of focal mechanism solu-
tions in the Sikkim region (Hazarika et al. 2010; Kumar et al. 2012) delineate NW-oriented
fault trends consistent with those of the Tista and Gangtok lineaments. Similar seismicity

Fig. 3 Location of broadband seismic stations (triangles) along a N–S profile in the Sikkim Himalaya
together with the piercing points of the Ps conversion at 60 km depth (blue crosses). MBT main boundary
thrust, MCT main central thrust. Vertical line indicates the profile along which the common point stack
image is presented

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trends have also been inferred by Velasco et al. (2007) for the Sikkim–Bhutan region using
data from a local seismic network.

2 Data and methods

During the period October 2004–February 2010, the CSIR-National Geophysical Research
Institute, Hyderabad, has operated a network of 11 broadband seismic stations in the
Sikkim Himalayan region. The network has enabled recording of local events during this
period. Soon after the September 18, 2011, Sikkim earthquake of M6.9, a network of five
stations was installed to monitor its aftershocks. In the present study, the local seismicity
data from this network are used in conjunction with the Bouguer gravity anomaly data to
infer the seismotectonic trends of the Sikkim Himalaya. Apart from this, teleseismic
earthquake data recorded by the 11-station network have been used to construct an image
of the Indian plate using the P receiver function analysis. Teleseismic P waveforms of
1,278 earthquakes in the epicentral distance range of 30°–100° are used to compute
receiver functions. Figure 3 shows the stations together with the piercing points of the Ps
conversions at 60 km, and Fig. 4 depicts the azimuthal distribution of the teleseismic
events. After a quality check, waveforms whose vertical components have signal-to-noise
ratios C2.5 are retained for further analysis. Receiver functions are computed by first
rotating the Z, N, E waveforms into a ray (L, Q, T) coordinate system (Vinnik 1977) using
the back-azimuth of the earthquake and the incidence angle of the P phase. The L

Fig. 4 Distribution of the 1,278 teleseismic earthquakes used for computation of receiver functions in
Sikkim Himalaya

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component is then deconvolved from the Q component to obtain SV receiver functions.

The deconvolution is performed in the frequency domain through a simple spectral divi-
sion using a water level value of 0.001 for stabilization and a Gauss filter of width two to
reduce the noise. We then produce a seismic image of the crust beneath Sikkim Himalaya
through common conversion point stacking (CCP) of the 2,983 good-quality receiver
functions. This is done by transforming the receiver functions into the depth domain by
back-projecting the energy to their corresponding conversion points along their paths,
using the modified IASP91 standard velocity model having a crustal thickness of 58 km
and treating all the energy as Ps conversion from a discontinuity. To enhance the spatial
coherence of the converted phases, the back-projected amplitudes are binned into
2 9 2 km grids corresponding to different depth-offsets and subsequently stacked and
projected onto the profile shown in Fig. 3. The back-projected amplitudes of the RFs
falling in a spatial grid are plotted using a color scheme where red represents a positive
polarity and blue indicates a negative one (e.g. Li et al. 2000).
Further, gravity gradients in this region are studied using EGM 2008 computed from
terrestrial, airborne, marine and satellite altimetry gravity data. This model is complete up
to a degree and order 2,190 of spherical harmonics of gravity field (Pavlis et al. 2012). Free
air gravity anomalies of the region are derived from EGM2008 and compared with
available terrestrial data (GMSI 2006) from this region. The average difference in the
gravity anomalies is \5 mGal (Tiwari et al. 2010). The topographic and terrain effect are
corrected using detailed topographic data, and a complete Bouguer anomaly map of the
study region was prepared. Further, the E–W gradient of the Bouguer gravity anomalies is
calculated using a density value of 2,670 kg/m3, and a horizontal E–W gradient map is
prepared (Fig. 2) to enhance the N–S-oriented features.
The seismicity, earthquake focal mechanisms from the Harvard centroid moment tensor
catalog and the Bouguer gravity anomalies in the Sikkim region are viewed in conjunction
with the crustal image from receiver functions to decipher the tectonics of the region. In
addition, we collate the strike-slip earthquakes all along the Himalaya, the Burmese arc and
the Sagaing fault and present a possible unified model that explains transverse faulting in
the Himalaya.

3 Results and discussion

3.1 Seismicity and focal mechanisms

The seismicity and focal mechanism solutions in the Sikkim region have helped in defining
the plausible fault trends and sense of movements. The 292 aftershocks in the magnitude
range of 2.5–3 recorded by the CSIR-NGRI network during the period September 22, 2011,
to March 31, 2012, clearly bring out the NW–SE trend, which compare with the Tista,
Gangtok and Golpara faults (GOL) in this region having a similar trend (Kumar et al.
2012). The depths of these shocks vary from very shallow to 60 km. Focal mechanisms of
earthquakes in the Sikkim region including the Mw 6.9 earthquake of 2011, available from
global catalogs (USGS 2010; Harvard 2010) show strike-slip mechanisms with fault planes
oriented NW–SE and NE–SW. While both the planes are possible, the preferred plane
would be the NW–SE one based on seismicity trends (Velasco et al. 2007; Kumar et al.
2012).

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3.2 Gravity gradients

Figure 2 shows the gravity gradient anomalies superimposed with the seismicity and
tectonic map of the Sikkim Himalaya. It can be seen that the horizontal EW gradients of
the Bouguer anomalies around Sikkim reflect the general northerly orientations of the
faults, with a strong NS anomaly of up to 3 mgal/km seen around 88°E, south of the MBT,
consistent with the trend of Malda–Kishanganj fault in the Indo-Gangetic plains (GSI
2000). The extension of this fault into the Himalaya, and its role in controlling the
transverse movements cannot be ruled out, although the trend of this fault does not match
with the seismicity trends or the preferred fault plane which is more NW trending, con-
sistent with the Tista/Gangtok lineaments (Hazarika et al. 2010; De and Kayal 2003). The
NE-trending Kanchenjunga fault (KF) in northern Sikkim having a perceptible gravity
gradient, would also qualify to be the fault plane of the Mw 6.9 Sikkim–Nepal earthquake
of September 2011. The GOL is another possibility but is located farther away and has a
more ENW trend. In any case, a predominance of NW-oriented structures from seismo-
logical studies, as also the sense of slip that can be inferred from the focal mechanisms
probably weaken this possibility. It appears likely that the features indicated by the gravity
gradients reflect shallow structures or paleo-faults that may be aseismic compared to the
deeper active faults on the descending Indian plate.

3.3 Receiver functions

The common conversion point stack of P receiver functions along a north–south profile in
Sikkim Himalaya (indicated in Fig. 3), clearly delineates a northward dipping trend of the
Indian Moho, that deepens from *40 km in the lower Himalaya to *65 km in the higher
Himalaya (Fig. 5). A depth section plot of the available Harvard CMT solutions of the
strike-slip type (shown in map view in Fig. 2) including the September 18, 2011, Sikkim
earthquake of Mw 6.9 (green) reveals a good correlation between the focal depths and the
dipping trend of the Indian plate indicating the operation of transverse tectonics within the

Fig. 5 Common conversion point stack of P receiver functions along a north–south profile in Sikkim
Himalaya indicated in Fig. 3, together with the available Harvard CMT solutions of the strike-slip type
shown in map view in Fig. 2, including the September 18, 2011, Sikkim earthquake of Mw 6.9 (green). The
CMT solutions are rotated for a side view

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under-thrusting Indian crust rather than in the overlying Himalayan crystallines which
extend down to about 20–25 km, while the base of the Indian Moho reaches down to about
60 km near the MCT (Singh et al. 2010). Very similar results are indicated even by gravity
modeling (Tiwari et al. 2006), confining the crustal column of the Indian lithosphere in the
proximity of the MCT (in the Sikkim region) to a depth range of 25–60 km, including the
Mw 6.9 earthquake of 2011. Interestingly, even the other strike-slip earthquakes in this
region shown in Fig. 2 have focal depths conforming to the dipping trend of the Indian
plate (Fig. 5), with the shallowest one near MCT at 13.6 km and the deepest one north of
MCT at 69.6 km. This indicates that all the strike-slip fault earthquakes in the Sikkim
region occur within the dipping Indian crust, on near-vertical faults defining transverse
tectonics across the Himalaya, along the NW-trending Tista–Gangtok fault system.

3.4 GPS

GPS measurements in the Indian subcontinent during the last few years have helped
resolve the complex crustal deformations pertaining to the India–Eurasia collision along
the Himalaya, and several individual block movements, particularly near the eastern
Himalayan syntaxis comprising the Shillong plateau, Brahmaputra valley, the Sikkim–
Bhutan block, the Burmese arc and the eastern syntaxis (Mukul 2000; Vigny et al. 2003;
Gahalaut and Gahalaut 2007; Pradhan et al. 2013; Mukul et al. 2014; Vernant et al. 2014).
The latest study that compiles all the existing GPS data complimented by geological
observations in the NE India is that of Vernant et al. (2014), which indicates a consistent
increase in velocities toward east from eastern side of Nepal toward the Burmese Arc with
a fixed India frame. This implies that the differential vectors are supportive of right-lateral
movements across Himalaya. The Euler pole model for the relative motion between var-
ious blocks in the Indian subcontinent indicates a clockwise rotation of the Brahmaputra
valley leading to a right-lateral strike-slip motion along the NW-trending Kopili lineament
across Bhutan Himalaya. The only GPS study for the Sikkim region comes from Pradhan
et al. (2013) who also indicate that the 2011 Sikkim earthquake occurred on a NW-oriented
right-lateral strike-slip fault.

3.5 Transverse tectonics in Sikkim

The strike-slip solutions in Sikkim as well as other parts of Himalaya have in general, a
fault plane and an auxiliary plane in the NE–SW and a NW–SE direction that are left
lateral (sinstral) and right lateral (dextral), respectively. The present study supports the
latter although conjugate faulting on both types of faults cannot be ruled out. The model of
left-lateral faulting of Dasgupta et al. (1987) based on offsets in gravity anomalies looks
interesting. However, in this case, the sense of slip would have to be left lateral on a NW–
SE-trending fault, which is exactly opposite of what is seen in the earthquake focal
mechanism data. Such offsets, if they really exist, would probably correspond to aseismic
or paleo-faults, particularly in the shallow depth as seen in the gravity gradients, unlike the
steep active faults going down to 60 km depth as in Sikkim. Another interesting evidence
of lateral offsets is from Nakata (1972) who, based on drainage patterns in the Himalaya,
has shown evidence for tectonic offsets of river courses. However, these are offsets along
the arc which would not qualify as transverse faults.
The major arguments in favor of a right-lateral strike-slip motion along NW–SE planes
in Sikkim are the following:

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(a) The best fitting trend for the epicentral locations of strike-slip earthquakes in the
Sikkim Himalaya plotted in the map view (Fig. 2) is the NW trend which again
matches with the plane having a right-lateral sense of slip. These earthquakes also
conform to the trend of the dipping Indian plate in the same direction as seen in the
depth section (Fig. 5). The increasing depth of occurrence of strike-slip earthquakes
as we go north is a further confirmation of our model.
(b) The trend of aftershock locations using hypoDD analysis in Sikkim (Kumar et al.
2012) also conforms to a NW-trending fault plane that corresponds to right-lateral
motion in the fault plane solutions.
(c) Analysis of seismic network data by Velasco et al. (2007) has clearly brought out a
seismicity trend along the GOL in the Sikkim–Bhutan region which trends NW–SE
similar to the Tista lineament nearby.
(d) Analysis of GPS data in Sikkim by (Pradhan et al. 2013) also supports strike-slip
deformation in the NW–SE direction which is interpreted as the causative of the
2011 earthquake.
(e) In general, in case of each zone of strike-slip transverse faulting examined in this
study (Fig. 6), the fault plane with a right-lateral sense of slip is the one that best
matches with the existing seismicity trend, regional fault in the vicinity and/or the
known sense of fault/plate motion in the region. For instance, the right-lateral sense
of plate motion is well known along the Sagaing fault (Curray et al. 1979) and the
Burmese arc (Rao and Kumar 1999; Rao and Kalpna 2005; Vigny et al. 2003;
Gahalaut and Gahalaut 2007), Kopili lineament (Vernant et al. 2014) and Sikkim
Himalaya (Hazarika et al. 2010; Pradhan et al. 2013; Fig. 2, in this paper). The latest
GPS results for Himalaya by Vernant et al. 2014 (Fig. 2) that show increasing vector
lengths as we go eastward, is a also clear indication of right-lateral trans-Himalayan

Fig. 6 Zones of transverse tectonics in the Himalayan region indicated by beach balls along with the
representative right-lateral strike-slip faulting mechanism. Red circles in the background indicate the large
to great earthquakes that occurred during the last century. Inset A series of right-lateral strike-slip faulting
from Kumaun Himalaya (K), through Sikkim (S), Bhutan (B), Burmese arc (BA) and Sagaing fault (SF)
describing a wrench fault tectonic model

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faulting. In Kumaun Himalaya in the west, the arc-normal plane which better
qualifies for transverse tectonics has a right-lateral sense of slip.

3.6 Wrench fault model for Himalaya

On a regional scale, a compilation of representative strike-slip focal mechanisms along

different segments of the Himalaya like Kumaon in the west, Sikkim, Bhutan Himalaya,
the Burmese arc and the Sagaing fault on the Burma–Sunda plate boundary on the east-
ernmost end of the Himalayan arc are shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that the transverse
fault system seems to demarcate a predominantly arc-normal convergent thrust tectonics in
western Himalaya from a more complex predominantly strike-slip transverse tectonic
environment toward the eastern Himalayan syntaxis and the Burmese arc. It is important to
note that pockets of transverse faulting similar to that in Sikkim are also present in other
parts of Himalaya, like the Kopili lineament east of Bhutan and the Kumaun Himalaya,
west of Nepal (Fig. 6). This is evident from the distribution of earthquake focal mechanism
solutions with right-lateral strike-slip fault planes supportive of the orientations of the
corresponding trans-Himalayan faults, except that the events on the westernmost side have
shallow (\20 km) depths compared to the deep-seated crustal-scale faults to the east
(Sloan et al. 2011). The presence of such strike-slip faulting across the Himalaya has been
attributed to basal shear caused by oblique convergence (McCaffrey and Nabelek 1998).
Interestingly, the trend extends farther east with a very similar right-lateral strike-slip
motion observed also along the NS-trending Burmese arc and the Sagaing fault, com-
prising the India–Burma and the Burma–Sunda plate boundaries, respectively, which
accommodate most of the northward convergence of the Indian plate with respect to
Eurasia. The cessation of the eastward subduction of the Indian plate beneath Burma and a
change in the tectonic scenario to a strike-slip environment in the recent geologic times is
well established (e.g. Vigny et al. 2003; Rao and Kalpna 2005; Socquet et al. 2006). What
is interesting to understand is whether the transverse tectonics in Sikkim Himalaya due to
right-lateral strike-slip movements on the Tista/Gangtok fault system, and other parts of
Himalaya can be related to that observed along the Burmese arc and the Sagaing fault. In a
broader perspective, series of such crustal-scale right-lateral transverse faults punctuating
the region from Kumaon and Sikkim Himalaya, through Bhutan and Burmese arc to the
Sagaing fault on the east, are suggestive of ‘wrench fault tectonics’ in a broader scale of
continent–continent collision that accommodates the Indian plate convergence beneath
Eurasia from west to east (Fig. 6, inset). Differential GPS vectors of Vernant et al. (2014)
also support such a model.

3.7 Seismic hazard

The concept of transverse tectonics across Himalaya implies partitioning of the under-
thrusting of the Indian plate into separate block movements. This also implies release of
stress in the form of thrust earthquakes within these blocks and strike-slip faulting along
their peripheries. Given that the most disastrous earthquakes in the Himalaya, and for that
matter in any convergent plate boundary in the world, have been thrust type, with at least
two great earthquakes recorded in the Himalaya, it would be reasonable to suggest that
transverse tectonics along Himalaya manifesting as deeper strike-slip earthquakes across
the arc imply a lower level of hazard than that inferred from their shallow thrust coun-
terparts. This is apparent for the Sikkim Himalaya where the largest earthquake reported

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during the last four decades is only of M6.9. The model of wrench faulting in parts of
Himalaya with implications for release of pent up stress through strike-slip faulting at
regular intervals in space, importantly occurring at greater depths than the thrust-type
earthquakes, would form important input for a realistic seismic hazard assessment, espe-
cially in the eastern Himalaya.

4 Conclusions

Transverse strike-slip faulting occurs in Sikkim Himalaya on vertical faults cutting deep
and across the under-thrusting Indian plate beneath Himalaya. In general, the Himalayan
arc experiences wrench faulting through a series of right-lateral strike-slip faults from
Kumaon in the west through Sikkim and Bhutan Himalaya, to the Burmese arc and Sagaing
fault on the eastern end.

Acknowledgments The Ministry of Earth Sciences provided funding for our project in eastern Himalaya.
We sincerely thank P. Solomon Raju, R. Vijaya Raghavan and G. Srihari Prasad for help during field
operations. Two anonymous reviewers and the EIC are thanked for their useful comments and suggestions.
This work is carried out under the GENIAS project of CSIR-NGRI.

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