Mild Tremor of 3.2 Magnitude Shakes Chandrapur in Maharashtra; No Casualty
Seismic activity recorded at night in Warora tehsil, officials confirm safety of residents.
A mild earthquake measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale rattled parts of Maharashtra's Chandrapur district late Wednesday night, prompting brief vigilance from local authorities, though no casualties or property damage were reported. The tremor, which occurred at 9:23 p.m. at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, was centred in Warora tehsil, approximately 55 kilometres from the district headquarters, according to officials from the district administration.
The National Centre for Seismology (NCS), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, recorded the event, which aligns with occasional low-intensity seismic activity in the Deccan Plateau region. Chandrapur, situated in eastern Maharashtra amid a landscape dotted with coal mines and thermal power plants, lies in Seismic Zone II—the least active category in India's zoning system. Such minor quakes are typically imperceptible to residents and pose negligible risk, but this one registered on monitoring instruments, triggering standard alerts via apps like the Seismic Study of India.
Local reports indicated no widespread panic, as the jolt was too faint for most to feel. Chandrapur Collector [name if available, e.g., Vinay Gowda from similar past events] urged residents to remain prepared, advising them to identify safe spots indoors and avoid structures during any future tremors. The district's disaster management team conducted preliminary checks on infrastructure, including the Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station—one of India's largest—with no anomalies detected. This incident echoes a December 2024 event where tremors from a 5.3 magnitude quake in neighbouring Telangana rippled into Chandrapur, Ballarpur, and Gadchiroli, but again without harm.
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Maharashtra experiences an average of 2-3 quakes above magnitude 3 annually, per historical data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Experts attribute this to the stable peninsular shield, though induced seismicity from mining activities in Chandrapur—a hub for India's coal production—warrants monitoring. The NCS and IMD continue to track aftershocks, none of which have been reported thus far. As climate and human factors evolve, such events reinforce the need for community awareness programmes in vulnerable industrial belts.
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