Vijayapura: Despite the district experiencing tremors on regular intervals, the experts say that there is almost a negligible chance of the tremors of this low magnitude causing damage to Almatti Dam and historical monuments including the world-famous Gol Gumbaz in the region.
In the span of one and half months, that is, since September 4 to October 10, at least six times earthquakes between 2 to 3.9 magnitude are occurring in the district. Among the six recorded tremors a total of five are epicentered within the district – two in Masuti village of Basavana Bagewadi, one each in Baratagi village of Bijapur, Tikota and Bijapur City.
Apart from this the people dwelling in Sindgi, Indi, Bableshwar and Bijapur city have experienced hollow sound and earthquake at least 10 times, where no seismic activity has been recorded in any of the nearest seismology observatory centers.
As frequent earthquakes are occurring in the area – a fear is also mongering among the people that whether this natural calamity will cause any damage to the heritage monuments and Almatti Dam, one of the biggest water reservoirs in South Asia, in future. An earthquake expert ruled out the possible threat to mega structures of the region due to tremors while speaking to The New Indian Express.
Expert and Senior Consultant for the State Disaster Management Authority pointed out that, “Even when the tremors of 6.4 magnitude occurred in Latur in 1993 – the heritage monuments and the water reservoirs of Bijapur have not reported any kind of damage. Now, the earthquake is occurring at a very low intensity, which hardly causes damage to any infrastructure in the region.”
“Even if the magnitude above six hits the district the historic monuments won’t face any damage because they are compact structures. Moreover, the engineers build the mega infrastructures considering all the factors including possible tremors. So, there is no question of causing damage to any water reservoirs in the region.”
“However, the damages might occur if and only if the structures are in frail condition. We can mitigate such damage by using advanced technology – retrofitting. It may be noted that there is no facility for the forecast of earthquakes. If we look at the frequent earthquakes occurring in the region it is definitely because of the hydrological phenomena and detailed study will give a clear picture,” elaborated Reddy, who also served as the director of Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre.
It may also be noted that there are over 82 historical monuments including world famous Gol Gumbaz developed in the Adil Shahi dynasty in 17th century in and around Bijapur city. After frequent earthquakes – the local officials of Archaeology Survey of India (ASI) have alerted the higher authorities.
“Since, earthquakes are reported in the district, we are closely monitoring all the heritage monuments. We have not found any kind of damage to either big monuments or small monuments. All these historical monuments have a strong rock foundation. So, the low intensity earthquake won’t cause any damages,” said an official.
