Hyderabad:A rare earthquake, measuring 5.3 magnitude on the Richter Scale, jolted Telangana on Wednesday morning with tremors from the event felt across the state, including on the city outskirts, and in parts of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
According to the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) headquartered here, the quake struck at 7.27 am, and originated around 40 km below the surface, very close to Medaram village in Mulugu district, and lasted for around 10 seconds.
The epicentre was in the Godavari Rift Valley, a term given to the region of the Godavari basin. The river itself is not very far – around 50 km as the crow flies — from the point of the quake’s origin.
The epicentre was around 7 km from the patch of forest in Mulug where around 50,000 trees fell after a freak storm earlier this September.
While Wednesday’s quake did make many people run out of their homes in the affected areas, its origin in the middle of the forest meant there were no reports of any damage to structures, or injuries to people or loss of life.
There were reports of some houses developing cracks in their walls, and shaking of the ground from different parts of the state.
The Ramappa temple, a Unesco world heritage site, located just under 40 km from the epicentre, and the Samakka-Saralamma temple in Medaram, close to where the quake originated, were reported to be safe.
NGRI scientists said though the tremors were felt in Hyderabad too, albeit not as intensely as near the point of their origin, the city faced no danger from earthquakes as it located in one of the geologically safest zones in the country. The Deccan Plateau, on which Hyderabad is located, is stable and is not prone to serious earthquakes, and the city does not face any real threat from such events, officials said.
In Mulugu district where the earthquake and was felt the most, people living in Tadvai, Pasra, Mangapet, Kamalapura, Timmapur, Narsapuram and Narasimhasagar ran out of their houses in panic. People also reported the ground shaking from many places in Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Mahbubabad, Warangal and Hanamkonda districts. Similar reports were received from several places in Karimnagar, and Peddapalli districts.
In the neighbouring Mancherial and KB Asifabad districts, people reported tremors from Chennur, Jaipur, Ramnagar and Naspur of Mancherial town, and in Karnamamidi in Hazipur areas in Mancherial and Kautala, Chaithalamanepalli and Bejjur in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
The impact of the quake was also felt strongly in other parts of the Godavari Rift Valley areas including Khammam town where people reported that vessels and utensils in kitchens fell down form the shaking of their homes. In Nalgonda district, tremors were reported from Chityal, Munagala, Mothkur, Arvapally, Nakerkal Yadagirigutta and Suryapet mandals.
