India has wide variations in its topography and building construction practices all over the country. It has rich heritage of traditional building construction styles varying from region to region. However, 59% of the total inland area is prone to major earthquake shaking. Nevertheless, insufficient knowledge of earthquake resistant design and construction (or sometimes purely negligence), leads to development of seismically vulnerable building stocks in different parts of our country. These building typologies require special attention while assessing for seismic vulnerability. Various guidelines have been developed in past to assess the existing buildings for its seismic vulnerability. Many initiatives have been made, by government agencies and researchers, to categorize building typologies with an aim to frame modalities for seismic vulnerability assessment. Herein, an abridge review is presented on various approaches developed earlier, on vulnerability assessment of Indian building stocks, with a focus on the buildings located in the hilly terrains.

Building Typology, Earthquake, Hilly Terrain, Seismic Vulnerability.