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Dust settles over Kerala's `red rain'

Vinson Kurian

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, July 31

IT'S official. The coloured rain in some parts of Kerala was caused by the fine dust thrown up by a disintegrating meteorite. The celestial body, passing at great speed, deposited the dust in the monsoon clouds, causing the downpour of colour.

Tracing the origin to meteorite dust -- and not the ``washing of dirty linen by Marxists beaten blue and black in the Assembly elections'' as joked by an intrepid Congress Member to the collective amusement of Parliament -- scientists S. Sampath and V. S asi Kumar, however, said they were still at a loss to explain the loud bang which reportedly accompanied the rain.

According to a Centre for Earth Sciences Studies (CESS) statement, a eastward-bound meteor exploded over Changanassery town in central Kerala around 5.30 a.m. on July 25. The burning meteorite is estimated to have spewed out some 1,000 kg of fine dust in to the atmosphere. This triggered a chain of events, involving yellow, green and even black rain in Palakkad, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Pathanamthitta districts. Yellow rain was reported from Chittar in Pathanamthitta district.

The CESS Director, M. Baba, said the initial findings were based on the physical analysis of the sediments found in the rain water sample obtained from Changanassery and information culled from the residents. The chemical analysis, expected to shed more light into the quirky episode, is in progress.

According to available information, the rain was normal on the previous day. But residents were jolted out of their sleep by ``a very loud noise'' in the wee hours of July 25. A few of them also saw a flash of light.

The red showers started three hours later, fading towards the end of the 15-minute spell. The subsequent spell was normal though. According to Baba, the sound of thunder was unusual as thunderstorms do not accompany rains during this time of the year.

Coming as it did after a series of quake-related rumble, collapsing wells, swirls in well waters, cracking walls, fuming hills, sinking earth, floods, landslides and what not, the oddities that befell the verdant greens were such that the State risked be ing mistaken for the ``odds on country'' over the past seven months.

Scientist teams from leading institutions have been virtually scouring the earth trying to explain the strange happenings by proffering what seem to be largely credible but discomfortingly divergent findings.

The fear of the ground slipping away from under their feet, if not the skies falling on the heads, have rendered the people circumspect and seeking far more reassuring words from the people concerned. The freak developments are a sign of much worse thing s to come, they fear.

After having heaved a collective sigh of relief that no more such incidents have been reported, the authorities are buying time before they find themselves faced with a truant Nature yet again.