The mild tremors experienced twice on Sunday in Shengottai at the foothills of the Western Ghats located around 125 km from Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district further fuelled the anti-KKNPP agitation.
PMANE leader Pushparayan said that the seismic activity, though mild, had justified their struggle.
The first mild tremor, according to police sources, was reported at noon on Sunday at Achanputhur and Neduvayal near Shengottai in Tirunelveli district. It was of less than a second’s duration.
The second tremor occurred at 4.54 pm and lasted for two seconds and made utensils roll down from racks, said Poovaiah of Neduvayal.
A geologist from the department of geology, VOC college, Thoothukudi, said that the areas where the tremors were reported fell on the Achankovil-Thamirabarani fault line.
He added that Abishegapatti, where molten rock extrusions were reported in 1998, 2001 and 2002, also fell on this fault line in Tirunelveli district.
The professor however refused to answer whether the tremors occurred near Shengottai had any impact at Kudankulam, where a nuclear power plant is located.
He, however, quoted a report of the National Institute of Rock Mechanism (NIRM) on the melting of a concrete electric pole in 1999 at Abishegapatti, located 60 km away from Kudankulam and said that it was due to the short circuited current that passed through the pole made of reinforced concrete material.
PMANE (People’s movement against Nuclear Energy) leader, Pushparayan however, said that the tremors justified their struggle.
Adding that their fears about the nuclear project were not based on imagination but scientific facts, he quoted a study by Prof. Biju Longinus of Kerala University, according to which the tectonic plates were weak in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu and it could lead to earthquakes.