Lava emanated from earth in Sendhwa

Bhopal, Apr 15: Molten lava emanated from earth at Industrial Area in Sendhwa block of Badwani district on Tuesday afternoon. The ember orange coloured fluid continued to spring out of earth for more than an hour and then got deposited after cooling down. The molten fluid reportedly heated up the vicinity creating panic among the few factory owners.

It was learnt that Sendhwa falls under the catchment’s area of the Narmada River on which Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) was constructed. While, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activists claimed construction of Sardar Sarovar Dam has increased seismic activities in the area resulting into eruption, experts opined chemical examination of lava could unfold the incident. A private company's general manager PK Rahul noticed the smoke and lava emanating out of earth. He said a sudden explosion occurred and smoke emerged on the 'Kutcha' road behind the factory premises at around 1400 hours.

“Initially, labourers and workers assumed that something had happened at nearby power grid. However, later it was found that 1.5 feet radius hole has been created and ember orange coloured fluid was coming out intermittently along with explosive sounds,” he said. Local officials and reporters visited the spot and found melted lava coming out up to eight feet high. The substance spread in nearby areas burning grass in about 50 feet vicinity. Police reached the spot and put up barricades to prevent curious public from coming near the spot. The Sub-Divisional Officer Vishnu Kamalkar said geologists had been informed for examining the site. Lava stopped coming out at around 1620 hours. About 2 to 5 litre lava had come out by that time.

Former Director General of Seismological Research, a wing of the Irrigation Department and MPCOST Janardan Negi, when queried whether the seismic activities in the area have increased due to Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), said that chemical examinations of the fluid which has emanated could only throw light on the incident. NBA Actvist Ashish from Badwani on the contrary said Narmada valley has been the geologically fault zone and Sardar Sarovar Dam has increased the seismic activities in the area. Citing past examples, he informed strange noise like explosion of bombs was heard about six months ago at Kochda village of Dharampuri tehsil in Dhar district. The area too got submerged in SSP, he added.