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2 killed as tremors hit Kerala, TN

D Jose in Trivandrum

At least two persons, including a two-year-old child, were killed and 10 injured and a number of buildings, including houses, damaged in moderate tremors that rocked several districts in south and central Kerala and Tamil Nadu on Sunday morning.

Ericadu Vasu, 68, of Puthupally village in Kottayam district died of a heart attack brought on by the tremors. Vasu was in the lavatory at the time.

The child was killed and two persons were injured when a wall collapsed in Kadayam in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.

The tremors measuring 4.8 and 3.3 on the Richter scale were felt in Idukki, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta, Quilon and Trivandrum districts. Several parts of Coimbatore district bordering Kerala also felt the tremors lasting one to two seconds.

The tremors, which shook the area near latitude 9.7 degree north and longitude 76.8 degree east, were as strong as the December 12 quake with its epicentre at Melukavu in Idukki district.

The epicentre of Sunday's tremors, believed to be an aftershock of last month's quake, is also a place between Peerumedu and Vandiperiyar in Idukki district, according to Trivandrum meteorological station director V Gangadharan. The place is 15km from Melukavu.

Gangadharan told rediff.com that the first tremor lasting one to two seconds was felt at 0825 IST and the other at 0857. Several places experienced more than one tremor.

Reports from different centres said people ran out of their homes in panic as several structures developed cracks. Seven persons were injured at Vayala in Kottayam district when the broken asbestos sheets of a church fell on the congregation attending Sunday Mass. The sheets were shattered when the cross on the roof broke loose and fell on them.

In another case, a woman at Anikad near Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district suffered injuries when the roof tiles fell down.

The tremor accompanied by loud noises caused panic in several places. Patients from a block in the Kottayam Medical College Hospital ran out in fear. People at Nedumkandam in Idukki district said the tremor was stronger and of longer duration than on December 12, 2000. The people there felt the tremor twice.

The quake also caused panic among thousands of Ayyappa devotees at the Sabarimala hill shrine. The panic-stricken devotees thronged the sanctum sanctorum of the temple chanting "Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa".

The floor of the police barracks at Sabarimala developed fissures while the asbestos roof of the government hospital at Sannidhanam fell down.

After a quake measuring five on Richter scale on December 12, a series of tremors have been felt in Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam districts over the last month. Experts term them aftershocks and say they can continue for up to two months.

The people in Idukki, where the state's major hydroelectric projects are located, and the downstream districts of Kottayam and Ernakulam are in a quandary with experts airing divergent views on the quake and its impact on the dams. While one section says the tremors will not pose any danger, the other says dams such as the one at Mullaperiyar have been built without precautionary measures against earthquakes and if they collapse the entire Idukki district and parts of Kottayam and Ernakulam will be submerged.

National Geophysical Research Institute deputy director B K Rastogi had ruled out the possibility of major quakes hitting Kerala after visiting the areas affected by the December 12 quake.

But experts from the department of geology and mining are not ready to buy this argument and have recommended a disaster management plan to deal with future tremors.

Caught between divergent views, the state government has urged the Centre to send a high-level scientific team to make a comprehensive study of all aspects.

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