Panic after quake in Palghar: Dhundalwadi schools shut, over 2,500 boarders return home

MUMBAI: When Sapna Thakre (11), a boarder, picked up her belongings and stepped out of her school in Dhundalwadi, Dahanu—the epicentre of the earthquakes in Palghar district—and headed home, she felt a sense of relief.
A Class VI student, Sapna and her four cousins were returning to their village in Modgaon, Dahanu, on Saturday, happy the tremors they would experience back home would be far less than what they had been through in the past three months.
Students (tribal) have left their boarding schools in Dhundalwadi (the epicentre of tremors in Palghar district) and heading to their homes in and around Dahanu, where the intensity of tremor is much lesser.
Since Friday evening, poor tribal families have been flocking to the three schools in Dhundalwadi to take home their children. The Palghar district collector on Friday directed the schools to send the 2,500 students to their homes till the mild shocks subsided.

The tremor of 4.1 on the Richter scale at 3.53 pm on Friday at Dahanu and Talasari, the highest magnitude recorded in the region, has left villagers shaken.
Dhundalwadi Zilla Parishad school principal Ulhas Satvi told TOI almost all students come from villages that are experiencing mild tremors. “Yet they will be safer in their homes where the frequency of earthquakes is not as high as Dhundalwadi,” he said.

In fact the nearly 3,000 men, women and children of this otherwise sleepy village say mild shocks, most of which are not officially recorded, have become part of daily life.
According to Dhundalwadi sarpanch Shivaji Mahale, the first tremor was felt in the wee hours of Ganesh Chaturthi on September 13, 2018. The tremor was forgotten till November 7, the first day of Diwali, when villagers heard sounds and felt the ground shaking. “This time, we were certain it was an earthquake,” said Mahale. By November 11, the government officially recorded a tremor in Dahanu taluka measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale. Since then, villagers say they’ve been on shaky ground.

Shailesh Gawli, a villager, says almost every household has erected makeshift tents of cloth and cardboards. “Though the cold gets unbearable at night, we manage as sleeping inside the house is scary,” said Gawli.
Meanwhile, a senior official from the state disaster management department said they have distributed 200 tents, taken from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and funds have been released to the district collector to procure more if needed.

A WhatsApp group involving the sarpanch of the tremor-hit villages has been created by the district administration to report tremors and damages caused.
The government has also decided to form an expert committee under IIT-Bombay professor Ravi Sinha to suggest solutions to construct anti-earthquake homes in the region.
Villagers said they are worried about rebuilding their damaged homes. While adequate compensation has been promised, villagers said the money will not be sufficient. “A local was sanctioned Rs 1,600 for a collapsed wall. Who can construct a wall with this amount?” he asked.
Amid the fears and anxiety, a baffling phenomenon has left villagers asking questions. A borewell pump that had dried up several years ago has suddenly started spewing fresh water. There are no answers yet.
(inputs from Bhavika Jain in Mumbai)