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Bhavnagar still trembles with fear

Kinner Acharya in Bhavnagar

It is 2100 hours IST on a gloomy day. A few residential flats show signs of light and life. The roads are deserted. Some vehicles appear for a brief while and then vanish into the darkness. At the street corner paan shop, a small crowd has gathered, talking in hushed tones. Residents of huge bungalows are seated on chairs outside, in the garden, or on the road. Roadside food-stalls have customers eating as if it is a ritual.

What is surprising is patrolling by police vans. No, it is not Srinagar, it's Bhavnagar, a laid-back town of Saurashtra.

The cinema house screening Hamara Dil Aapke Pas Hai has few people for the last show.

Suddenly, some men come towards us and ask anxiously, "What happened? Is there a problem? Where do you want to go?"

We only answer the last question: "Control room."

The fear over the town is due to the 68 tremors in seven days!

The area has been witnessing mild tremors for nearly a year. But in the last month, they have created havoc. The latest round started on September 12 at 0619 hours IST.

Control room in-charge P P Trivedi says, "There were 22 tremors on September 12 and the next day, there were 26. The tremors continued till September 18, with an average of five jolts a day.''

Bhavnagar is a cultural capital of Saurashtra, and people here are known for their low ambition levels, and for their love of a slow pace of life and poetry.

Ever since the recent tremors began, about 2.5 lakh people have left the city. Municipal schools, which normally had 42,000 students, are left with hardly 14,000. Even colleges see empty classrooms.

Says Bhavnagar state transport depot director Shreeram Sanghani, ''Around 1.5 lakh reservations were made on September 15. Most people are migrating to Mahuva, Ahmedabad and Palitana. We have arranged for 42 more buses to cope with the rush."

Private tour operators stopped bookings for all routes, except Bhavnagar-Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar-Rajkot.

The scale of migration can be measured from the fact that the usual income of the municipal corporation from octroi and taxes is Rs 12 lakh per week. After September 13, the amount has reduced to Rs 1.25 lakh.

Eighty per cent of the population has left the city and those who have stayed back are tense.

Recounts Ajitsingh Jhala, "There was this terrible jolt on September 12. My five-year-old daughter Puja is scared. We are living with perpetual anxiety and nervousness. She starts weeping the minute we enter our residence. The incident left an indelible impression on her mind."

Nitin Soni, another resident of city, says, "We keep awake all through the night. We don't want to get caught unawares by the tremors. Government-built houses are the most vulnerable. The tremors have exposed the level of corruption in the government. Cracks have appeared in walls and ceilings of the structures. We are afraid that another tremor will destroy these buildings."

There are many theories regarding the epicentre of the tremors. But the truth remains that they are just theories.

Experts have failed to locate the epicentre, but the guessing game continues, from the Bay of Cambay to the desert of Kutch, with some mentioning the Gir forest.

Department of Meteorology, New Delhi, deputy director Dr S M Bhattacharya and assistant V S Rana have also not been able to throw much light.

They said, ''This can happen in the summer and during the monsoons in earthquake-prone areas. Probably, the situation will be normal in the winter. The sound at the time of the tremors suggests that it is just within three to four kilometres of the earth's surface. They are of low intensity."

According to the Gujarat State Geological Department, two layers of the earth, about 30 km below, are moving. Cambay Greban, which is prone to earthquakes, has many layers and as long as the layers do not settle down, the tremors will continue. It is not possible to guess how long it will continue."

The general public has sought shelter under the canopy of faith.

Bhavnagar town has turned into a large prayer hall. At every corner and inside every shrine, mass prayer sessions are on. Many believers have promised pilgrimages or fasts if the 'Almighty' calms down or targets some other place.

Others are observing stray dogs and birds for signs of a premonition.

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