Quake of magnitude 4.3 hit M'rashtra's Palghar

An earthquake measuring 4.3 on Richter scale hit Dahanu tehsil in Maharashtra’s Palghar on Friday.

In the last few months, tremors have rocked dozen-odd villages in Dahanu and Talasari tehsils in Palghar district, nearly 140 km from Mumbai.

As many as 40 tremors have been reported which were between 2.8 to nearly 4.3 on Richter scale.

On February 2, half a dozen tremors were recorded between 3 and 4.1 on Richter scale in which some houses were damaged and two-year-girl died.

Last month, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had asked teams of Disaster Management Authority (DMA) of the Maharashtra government and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to be stationed in the Palghar district.

The Public Works Department (PWD) and other agencies have also been directed to remain alert. Tents and tarpaulin have been given to the tribals whose dwellings developed cracks.

Palghar's district collector Prashant Narnavre had appealed those living in kutchha houses to sleep outside in tents at night.

The National Centre for Seismology (NCS) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the CSIR laboratory National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, has set up 5 field stations with seismometers in Dahanu and Talasari and data is being sent to New Delhi and Hyderabad.

The Maharashtra government has also tied up with Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay to conduct a study to zero in on the causes of these tremors.