The Hindu : New areas identified as prone to quakes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

New areas identified as prone to quakes

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad April 2. Fresh research into seismic activity in the State has offered startling revelations and identified as earthquake prone, more new areas, hitherto believed to be stable.

The findings dispute the old theory that the entire State is safe earthquakewise, except for a few pockets such as Ongole, Bhadrachalam and Chittoor, as the State lies in the "risk-free'' central part of the Peninsular Indian Shield. For the first time, Hyderabad has been officially grouped with "high hazard'' areas. A sum-up of the findings has been made available in the Earthquake Manual prepared by A. V. S. Reddy, senior IAS officer and disaster management expert, and presented to the Assembly recently.

An analysis of the manual shows that 11 out of 23 districts, including Hyderabad (Urban), run the risk with some of their mandals at high degree. In all, 143 mandals have been specified as tremor-prone and with each mandal having about 20 villages it is presumed that there are about 3,000 villages in the State, which come under the shadow. The hazard level for 106 mandals (about 2,000 villages) has been estimated as "high'' and for 106 other mandals, as "moderate.'' Hyderabad figures among the first category along with Shankarpalli, Serilingampalli, Rajendranagar and Moinabad in Ranga Reddy district.

Prakasam tops the districts with as many as 34 mandals named vulnerable and with the hazard level for 30 of them put as "high.'' The high-risk mandals include Ongole, Kanigiri, Chimakurthi, Chinaganjam, Karamchedu, Vetapalem, Darsi, Parchur, Martur and Addanki. Warangal lies at the bottom with one high hazard mandal, Mangapet, and two "moderate'' ones, Tadwai and Eturunagaram.

Guntur comes next taking the second rank from Khammam district where Bhadrachalam, most seismically active area in the State, accounted for the State's four major quakes, the worst in 1969 at 5.7 on the Richter scale. Today, 20 mandals in Guntur district have been found prone and the hazard level for all of them specified as "high''. The mandals include Chebrolu, Guntur, Parthipadu, Phirangipuram, Narasaraopet, Ipur, Vinukonda, Chilakaluripet, Ponnur, Bapatla and Peda Nandipadu.

The other districts with mandals being given in the brackets in descending order are Chittoor (21), Ranga Reddy (14), Khammam (13), Vizianagaram (11), Srikakulam (10), Medak (9), Visakhapatnam (7) and Hyderabad (one). Andhra Pradesh is the first state to bring out an earthquake manual indicating a high level of disaster preparedness. But, doesn't this give a wrong impression that the State is a place of quakes? The Relief Commissioner, D. C. Rosaiah, who was instrumental in preparing the manual, says that the State has recorded 80 earthquakes so far since 1,800 with places like Ongole, Bhadrachalam, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Vizianagaram serving as epicentres. The magnitude revolving around 4.5 on an average except on three occasions when it touched 5.7, 5.4 and 5 during the Bhadrachalam, Ongole and Chittoor quakes in 1969, 1967 and 1822 respectively.

Mr. Rosaiah said that the State was once considered as a safe zone but the Koyna, Latur and Jabalpur quakes of 1967, 1993 and 1997 had dismantled this theory and firmly established that it was no more risk-free. Weaknesses in crystal layers have been identified in the peninsular within which reactivation and stress build-up are likely. The Eastern Coastal tract, especially the Godavari Valley, and the adjoining areas are characterised by faults/fractures displaying evidence of seismic activity. The manual asks people in prone areas to be "ever ready'' implementing the prescribed dos and don'ts, citing the inability of science even now to give a correct prediction, and lists out a strategy to be followed by officials before and after the occurrence with the help of committees and control rooms existing at the Secretariat, district and mandal levels.

It discloses that two more seismic stations are being set up at Kothagudem and Cuddapah by the NGRI, in addition to those at Visakhapatnan, Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam and Sriramsagar.

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New areas identified as prone to quakes