EKDARA (Peth) April 24: Panic has gripped this tribal village about 15 km from Peth following termors and splitting of the earth at at least four spots. The phenomenon is similar to the cracking of the earth at Gonde village about 2 km from here three months ago.Ekdara has a population of 970 and is near river Damanganga, which flows downstream from Gonde. The water table of the river had lowered by about 7 ft where the crack had appeared and three fresh streams had emerged in the river bed in January.This created panic among Gonde villagers, who feared a massive earthquake in the region.Three months after the incident, similar cracks have surfaced in Ekdara village. The cracks range from one metre to three metres in length and are one inch to six inches wide. A tribal, Gopal Ganga Sapta told The Indian Express today, that he was sleeping in his house on Tuesday night, when he hear a rumbling sound beneath the surface of the earth, a jerk followed, which toppled his utensils. He rushed out anddiscovered that the earth had split near his house.Chandar Deoram Sapta, who is renovating his house, had piled up the roof tiles and was woken up when the tiles crashed to the ground. He said there was a thundering noise followed by a jerk. He came out to discover the cracks.Bhagwat Fakira Gaikwad, teacher of the primary school in the village, said he woke up to the sound of the thunder and found that others had gathered to see the cracks. Some tribals were celebrating a marriage in the village experienced the rumble and the quake and stopped dancing. Another tribal, Ananda Parasram Sapte discovered that the ground in his cattle shed had developed cracks.The tribals said they apprehended a massive earthquake. Most of them had walked to Gonde village and seen the cracks there. They agree that the cracks in Ekdara are smaller in site and numbers but they feel that the abnormal underground activity would lead to some disaster. The shock was also felt by Jambhulpada tribals 3 km away.The incident wasreported to the local Tehsildar who visited the village. Nothing has been done so far. The district administration, after the cracks in Gonde had invited a team of geological experts, who camped in Gonde for a week. It was also planned to shift some seismographic equipment from Koyna to monitor the geological disturbances.However, neither the equipment was shifted nor the experts' team, which visited Gonde in February first week, submitted any report. The Maharashtra Engineering Research Institute in Nashik, which has a seismograph had not registered any activity in the region on its equipment in January. Even after the incident on Tuesday night, officials said that they had not registered any seismological disturbances on their machines.
