Key highlights
- A 5.7 magnitude Bangladesh earthquake near Dhaka sent mild tremors across Kolkata and several northeastern states, with no casualties reported so far.
- The Bangladesh earthquake occurred in one of the world’s most complex plate junctions, where the Indian, Eurasian and Burma plates interact, a region scientists say is capable of much larger quakes.
- India’s official earthquake guidelines stress strict building codes and “drop, cover, hold” drills, as shallow and moderate events like the latest Bangladesh earthquake can still be dangerous in densely populated cities.
Opening overview: Bangladesh earthquake felt across eastern India
A 5.7 magnitude Bangladesh earthquake near Dhaka on Friday morning sent tremors across large parts of eastern India, including Kolkata and districts in northern West Bengal, reminding the region of its fragile seismic reality. The Bangladesh earthquake, recorded at a depth of around 10 kilometres by regional monitoring agencies, led residents in Kolkata and adjoining areas to step out of homes and offices as ceiling fans and wall fixtures visibly shook for several seconds.
So far, there have been no confirmed reports of deaths, major injuries or structural collapse linked to the Bangladesh earthquake, although authorities in India and Bangladesh are continuing to monitor the situation and collect field assessments.The latest Bangladesh earthquake occurred close to one of South Asia’s most densely populated corridors, stretching from Dhaka and Chattogram to Kolkata and the Northeast, where tens of millions live in a zone scientists have long warned is capable of much larger and more destructive events.
Strong tremors felt across parts of Kolkata, including the Salt Lake IT sector.
— Dr Tapas Pramanick (R G Kar Medical College) (@Rgkar2019Tapas) November 21, 2025
Employees evacuated buildings as precaution.
No major damage reported yet, but authorities urge people to stay alert and avoid using elevators.
Stay safe, Kolkata. 🌍⚠️#Earthquake #Kolkata #SaltLake pic.twitter.com/ZDQm6087wu
Seismologists have repeatedly highlighted that the Dhaka and Sylhet regions fall in higher hazard categories in Bangladesh’s own seismic zoning, while eastern India, including parts of West Bengal, Assam and the Northeast, lies in India’s Zone IV and Zone V, the country’s highest earthquake-risk classifications under the national building code. Against this backdrop, the Bangladesh earthquake that shook Kolkata functions as yet another stress test for early-warning communication, urban preparedness and enforcement of earthquake-resistant construction across both sides of the border.
How the Bangladesh earthquake unfolded and where tremors were felt
- 5.7 magnitude event near Dhaka sent mild but widely felt tremors into eastern India.
- Shallow depth and proximity to major cities amplified the perceptible shaking from the Bangladesh earthquake.
According to preliminary readings shared by regional agencies, the Bangladesh earthquake struck late in the morning, with the epicentre located east-southeast of Dhaka, roughly a few dozen kilometres from the capital, and at a shallow depth of about 10 kilometres. Similar events in Bangladesh, such as a 5.5 magnitude quake recorded by the United States Geological Survey in December 2023, have shown that even medium-magnitude shocks in this region can be widely felt due to the geological structure of the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta and surrounding fault systems.
Friday’s Bangladesh earthquake fit that pattern, with tremors rippling outward and being reported by residents in Kolkata high-rises, older neighbourhoods with unreinforced buildings and office towers across the city’s central business districts. Beyond Kolkata, the Bangladesh earthquake was also felt in multiple districts of North Bengal, including Cooch Behar and the Dinajpur belt, and across parts of the Northeast such as Tripura and Mizoram, areas that routinely experience shaking from regional seismic activity because of their proximity to the Indo–Burman arc.
People posted visuals of swaying ceiling fans, hanging lights and lightly rattling windows, typical of the intensity level associated with a moderate Bangladesh earthquake at some distance from the epicentre, while schools and offices conducted brief evacuation drills as a precaution. Early assessments from local authorities indicated no major structural damage, though engineers are expected to conduct rapid visual screening of vulnerable public buildings, hospitals and older infrastructure in the coming days to ensure that the Bangladesh earthquake did not exacerbate pre-existing weaknesses.
Why Bangladesh and eastern India are extremely earthquake-prone
- The Bangladesh earthquake occurred in a plate-junction region that global studies rank among the world’s most complex seismic environments.
- Long-term GPS and fault-mapping studies suggest large earthquakes, far bigger than the latest Bangladesh earthquake, are possible beneath the region.
Geoscientists describe Bangladesh and adjoining parts of eastern India and Myanmar as sitting on a triple-plate junction where the Indian plate interacts with both the Eurasian and Burma plates, creating a tangled web of faults and fold belts. Research using GPS measurements over more than a decade has shown that the Indian plate is moving northeast at around 46 to 60 millimetres per year relative to parts of Myanmar and Southeast Asia, and that segments of the plate boundary under Bangladesh are likely locked, storing strain that could be released in a very large event.
One widely cited study published in Nature Geoscience estimated that the subduction system beneath Bangladesh and Northeast India could theoretically generate an earthquake in the magnitude 8.2 to 9.0 range, orders of magnitude greater than the most recent Bangladesh earthquake near Dhaka. Bangladesh’s own seismic analyses divide the country into three major seismic zones, with Dhaka and Chattogram lying in higher-risk categories due to the clustering of historical earthquake epicentres and proximity to active fault systems like the Dauki and Sylhet faults.
A data-mining study of Bangladesh earthquake records from 1933 to 2018 compiled 507 events ranging from very minor to moderate magnitudes, demonstrating persistent background seismicity across the country and surrounding regions, even in years without major disasters. On the Indian side of the border, the national seismic zoning map classifies parts of the Northeast and eastern Himalayan foothills in Zone V, the highest hazard band, while sections of West Bengal, including parts of North Bengal that felt the latest Bangladesh earthquake, fall into Zone IV, signifying a high risk of damaging shaking over the long term.
Official seismic zoning and risk classifications
| Country / Region | Zone / Category | Indicative hazard description | Official / technical source |
|---|---|---|---|
| India, Zone V | Very high seismic risk, capable of intensity IX or more on MSK scale | Highest earthquake hazard band in India’s national zoning, covering parts of the Northeast and Himalayas | Government of India, Ministry of Earth Sciences reply on seismic zoning |
| India, Zone IV | High seismic risk, potential for severe damage during strong events | Includes parts of West Bengal, Delhi region and other urban centres | Government of India, seismic zoning details in official parliamentary document |
| Bangladesh Zone II | Higher hazard zone including Dhaka and surrounding regions | Studies identify Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and Mymensingh as particularly vulnerable | Bangladesh-focused seismic risk studies using historical data and probabilistic models |
These scientific and official classifications underline why even a moderate Bangladesh earthquake that sends tremors into Kolkata is treated seriously by planners, disaster managers and engineers across the region.
Lessons from official guidelines: building safety and public behaviour
- A moderate Bangladesh earthquake can be a crucial warning signal to strengthen building codes and public drills before a larger disaster strikes.
- National agencies stress simple, standard actions such as “drop, cover, hold” and strict adherence to earthquake-resistant design.
India’s National Disaster Management Authority lists earthquakes as one of the country’s most frequent and damaging natural hazards and has issued detailed guidance on how citizens and institutions should prepare for and respond to shaking events, whether triggered locally or by a Bangladesh earthquake across the border. The guidelines emphasise that the safest immediate response indoors is to drop to the ground, take cover under a sturdy table or against an inner wall and hold on until the shaking stops, while staying away from windows, unsecured shelves and exterior walls that could collapse or send debris flying.
Outdoors, people are advised to move away from buildings, streetlights and utility wires, and to remain in open spaces until authorities declare it safe, a pattern many residents in Kolkata and towns closer to the Bangladesh earthquake epicentre instinctively followed by stepping outside as the tremors began.On the structural side, Indian authorities point to the National Building Code and Bureau of Indian Standards criteria for earthquake-resistant design, which require that buildings in high-risk zones, including those that routinely feel shaking from a Bangladesh earthquake, behave as a single, ductile unit rather than a collection of weak, disconnected components.
A government submission to Parliament notes that the National Center for Seismology now monitors earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 and above in the Himalayan and adjoining regions and magnitude 3.5 and above in peninsular India, providing quicker information to disaster managers and the public. NDMA also recommends that households maintain emergency kits with torches, radios, first-aid supplies, water and essential documents, so that when a Bangladesh earthquake or any regional event hits, families can evacuate or shelter safely without losing critical resources.
Key elements of official earthquake safety guidance
| Measure / focus area | Official guidance summary | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Personal safety actions | Drop to the ground, take cover under sturdy furniture or in an inner corner, hold on until shaking stops; avoid glass and heavy fixtures | NDMA “Earthquakes: Do’s and Don’ts” |
| Building design | Follow National Building Code and BIS criteria so structures behave as integrated units and resist vibration in high-risk zones | Government of India, seismic safety guidelines |
| Monitoring thresholds | NCS routinely tracks earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 to 4.5 depending on region to support risk assessment and response | Ministry of Earth Sciences, NCS documentation |
These measures are designed to ensure that when a Bangladesh earthquake is felt in cities like Kolkata, the shaking serves as a live drill rather than the starting point of a catastrophe.
Broader regional pattern: Bangladesh earthquake and neighbouring shocks in Pakistan and Afghanistan
- The same week as the Bangladesh earthquake, a smaller 3.9 magnitude event struck Pakistan, underlining the continuous seismic activity along the broader India–Eurasia collision zone.
- Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India share with Bangladesh a long tectonic boundary where moderate to strong earthquakes are a recurring feature of life.
The report of a magnitude 3.9 earthquake in Pakistan around the same period as the 5.7 Bangladesh earthquake illustrates how the entire arc from Afghanistan through northern India and Pakistan to Bangladesh and Myanmar is linked by a common tectonic story. In the western sector, the Indian plate’s collision with Eurasia built the Himalayas and continues to drive crustal shortening and uplift, producing frequent earthquakes in Afghanistan, Pakistan-administered regions and northern Indian states, including major disasters in recent decades that have caused high casualties and large-scale displacement.
Farther east, towards Bangladesh and Myanmar, the plate interactions evolve into a complex mix of collision and subduction, which global studies now recognise as capable of generating both shallow crustal shocks like the recent Bangladesh earthquake and much deeper, larger megathrust events. This broader regional perspective is central for disaster managers in India and Bangladesh, who must plan not only for a repeat of moderate events like the latest Bangladesh earthquake but also for lower-probability, high-impact scenarios that could affect multiple countries simultaneously.
India’s national guidelines explicitly call for cross-border information sharing, harmonised early-warning systems and regular multi-state drills, given that seismic waves and their impacts do not respect political boundaries. In such a setting, every Bangladesh earthquake that is strong enough to be felt in Kolkata or other Indian cities becomes an opportunity to test communication channels between agencies, refine public alerts and strengthen coordination that could prove life-saving in a truly major regional crisis.
Closing assessment: a moderate Bangladesh earthquake, a major reminder
The 5.7 magnitude Bangladesh earthquake that shook Dhaka and sent tremors through Kolkata, North Bengal and the Northeast may ultimately be remembered as a relatively mild event, given the absence so far of serious damage or casualties. Yet, in a region where scientific studies warn of the potential for far larger earthquakes beneath Bangladesh and Northeast India, each Bangladesh earthquake that ripples across borders is a stark reminder that the underlying tectonic forces remain active and that the clock on accumulated strain has not stopped ticking.
Earthquake of 5.2 magnitude at Kolkata#Earthquake #Kolkata #Westbengal pic.twitter.com/QLNZCKETOx
— Dr Dilshad (Dentist) (@DilshadShakil) November 21, 2025
The combination of dense urban populations, ageing building stock and rapid but uneven urbanisation in cities like Dhaka and Kolkata means that the impact of a future Bangladesh earthquake of higher magnitude could be severe if preparedness measures do not keep pace. For both India and Bangladesh, the priority is clear: strengthen enforcement of earthquake-resistant construction in high-risk zones, expand public awareness campaigns that teach simple responses such as “drop, cover, hold,” and invest in real-time monitoring systems that can quickly characterise a Bangladesh earthquake and push accurate information to citizens and first responders.
The latest Bangladesh earthquake will likely fade from daily headlines within days, but its lessons should feed into building codes, urban planning and school drills for years to come, because the science points to a long future of seismic activity across this shared faulted landscape. If that learning is absorbed, a moderate Bangladesh earthquake that merely shook ceiling fans in Kolkata could end up playing a quiet role in saving lives when the region eventually faces a much more powerful test.
