35 killed, hundreds injured as huge earthquake rocks MP

The powerful earthquake that rocked Jabalpur and adjoining areas early on Thursday morning killing at least 35 people, injuring hundreds and rendering thousands homeless has once again demonstrated that the entire Narmada valley, spread over an area of 1,312 km in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, is earthquake-prone.

Most of the deaths were reported from Jabalpur district. The toll is expected to rise with the recovery of more bodies under the rubble of collapsed houses.

Three tremors were felt. The first tremor of mild intensity occurred at 0420 hours; the second a few minutes later was very powerful -- it had an intensity of 6 on the Richter Scale -- and lasted 20 seconds. The third tremor came at 0430 hours, was also of low intensity. The intensity of the quake was slightly less than the one that rocked Latur district in Maharashtra in 1993.

The maximum impact was felt in an area of 30 km radius around Jabalpur and shocks were felt in neighbouring districts like Chhindwara, Mandla, Narsinghpur and Seoni. Intermittent tremors were felt in Bhopal and other towns in MP and neighbouring Maharashtra.

Officials of the India Meteorological Department said the epicentre of the earthquake was near Amanpur, about 20 km south-east of Jabalpur on the Jabalpur-Nagpur road, on a latitude of 23.01 degree north and a longitude of 80.1 degree east.

Reports said most of the deaths were due to house collapses. There was widespread damage in Ragchi, Garha and Sarafa areas on the city's outskirts. In Mandla, more than a dozen people were injured when they jumped off buildings in panic.

In Jabalpur, some buildings in Khumeria cantonment, which has the country's oldest factory, developed cracks. Water supply was disrupted at many places in the city as pipelines burst. Telephones lines and electricity supply were also affected. Many buildings developed cracks following the quake.

The railway administration has directed that the speed of all trains passing through the region be restricted to 30 km per hour.

Reports pouring in from the affected villages said extensive damage was caused in Shahpura, Sehora and Panagar tehsils of Jabalpur. Thousands of people in the rural areas of Jabalpur district were rendered homeless as a result of the earthquake.

According to the injured coming from nearby villages, hundreds of mud houses have collapsed. Other buildings have been damaged and developed cracks.

In Jabalpur city, the main clock tower was damaged while the city corporation building developed wide cracks.

Geophysicist Dr J G Negi said the reason for the earthquake was the plate tectonic movement in the Narmada river's rift valley zone. Dr Negi said the rift might have become active again as it had in 1993 in Khandwa district, which is also located on the river bank.

According to Dr Negi, about 30 earthquakes have been reported in the 50 to 60 km-wide Narmada valley between Amarkantak near Jabalpur and Khambhat in Gujarat, during the last two centuries.

Since more than 1,100 km of this valley was in Jabalpur, the largest state in the country was most prone to such earthquakes, he said.

Dr Negi, a former scientist at the National Geophysical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, and formerly director-general of the MP council for science and technology, said quakes measuring five and four on the Richter Scale were recorded at Badwani in Khargone district in 1963 and 1967. In 1970 also, Bharuch in Gujarat had been rocked with a quake measuring four on the Richter Scale.

The most powerful quake (6.3) to hit the Narmada valley this century was recorded in the Satpura range in the Nimar region in MP. The valley was prone to quakes of up to 6.5 on the Richter scale, Dr Negi pointed out.

Construction of big dams on any river, Dr Negi said, was no cause for such earthquakes which would occur anyway due to plate tectonic movement, but dam bursts in the event of a quake in a rift valley could cause much damage.

The cause of the devastating quake at Latur in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, on September 30,1993, measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale and claiming thousands of lives, was the activation of the Kurudwadi rift, he pointed out.

On October 31,1993, Jabalpur district received three tremors of 3.8 on the Richter Scale. It was around the time when Latur and Khandwa were rocked by a devastating quake and a series of tremors.

Dr Negi said the Narmada valley was considered to be of medium seismicity, compared to the other rift valley zones where more quakes are reported.

In peninsular India, about a 600, 000 square km area was covered by massive volcanic flows, called the Deccan traps, that acts as a thick lid on the surface but make it difficult to identify the zone of weakness.

The 1938 quake of 6.3 on the Richter scale, that hit Khandwa district, did not cause much damage, as it occurred in an unpopulated mountainous area. However, its impact is still visible in a massive crack on an abandoned railway bridge nearby.

According to Dr Negi, Khandwa district has experienced more than a thousand mild tremors since 1993. Thursday's quake in Jabalpur was the third major quake measuring more than six on the Richter Scale in the last 70 years in the Narmada valley.