Four tremors in 3 days in Kalaburagi raise concern

Bengaluru: An earthquake measuring 3.5 magnitude on Richter scale shook parts of the Kalaburagi district on Tuesday morning but no loss of life or damage to property has been reported, authorities said.

This is the sixth earthquake to hit the north Karnataka region around Bidar and Kalaburagi since October 1. While two had occurred in Basavakalyan on October 1 and 5, four were recorded in Kalaburagi on October 9, 11 and 12.

According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre officials, a quake of 3.0 magnitude was reported near Gadikeshwar village of Kalaburagi on Monday morning and a tremor of 4.0 magnitude was felt in the same place at 9.55 pm.

Again this morning an earthquake of 3.5 magnitude hit Kupnoor village in Chincholi.

While the epicenter of Monday night’s earthquake was 1.6 km North-East of Gadikeshwar Gram Panchayat, today’s epicenter was 1.6 km southwest of Kupnoor.

According to police, panic-stricken people spent the night outdoors in Gadikeshwar and Kupnoor following the tremors.

The Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority Commissioner Manoj Rajan told PTI that he has convened a meeting of the geologists to understand the phenomena.

He added that the disaster management teams in the north Karnataka region have been put on alert. They have also been briefed about the do’s and don’ts in the event of any major earthquake.

The KSNDMC said in a statement that the intensity observed on Monday night was “little higher than low intensity”.

“The earthquake might be felt up to a radial distance of 50 to 60 km or even more. These types of earthquakes do not create any harm or damage to the local community, although there will be vibrations felt up to a distance of 50 to 60 km based on the local geology,” it said.

The earthquakes assume significance as the epicentres are in close proximity to Latur and Killari in Maharashtra, which had witnessed a massive earthquake in September 1993 killing a large number of people.