Kodagu tremors too mild: KSNDMC

Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), which is the nodal agency to monitor seismic activity in the state, says the landslides in Kodagu are not related to the July 9 tremors recorded in the district by the Indian Meteorological Department. 

“Our observatories did not record any tremor in Kodagu as quakes of 3 on the Richter scale are too mild to be registered. This sort of micro seismic activity is very common in regions like Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru. People don't need to be evacuated or panic as they don’t pose any threat,” said the centre’s director,  Srinivas Reddy. 

Ruling out the possibility of the Kodagu landslides being caused by the  July  tremor, he explained that a landslide would have occurred immediately after the tremor if it was of high intensity. 

“The  Kodagu landslide was rain induced. It is only when the magnitude of a tremor exceeds the limit, that we send alerts and insist on evacuation,” 
he added.  

As for Bengaluru, he said it could not experience an earthquake of a magnitude of 5  on the Richter scale as it fell under zone 2, which was classified among the low seismic intensity zones. “But we are asking for buildings to be constructed to withstand a quake of the magnitude of 6 or 7 on the Richter scale,” he revealed.

The KSNDMC has 14 seismic observatories across the state in Kodagu, Hassan, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bijapur, Belgaum, Bellary, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga, Chitradurga, Mandya, Chamarajnagar and Bengaluru.