A sudden drop in atmospheric temperature and small earthquakes convinced seismologists to alert Assam government for a major earthquake in the near future.

Assam government, after getting an urgent alert communication from world famous seismologist Dr Arun Bapat, has not taken any chances and formally asked all district magistrates to be on alert for any eventuality.

The government has also approached the Geological Survey of India, said senior officials of the revenue department.

The chain of events started with a communique from Dr Bapat, who is an expert in the matter. He informed that there was a sudden change of atmospheric temperature in an area in north Lakhimpur district.

The communique arrived a fortnight back to the Assam government saying in the area the temperature was below the normal temperature by 3-4 degrees and the occurrence was sudden.

The Lakhimpur area itself is in a highly seismic active zone and Dr Bapat cited that a similar abrupt fall in atmospheric temperature was noticed in Pakistan's Rawalpindi in 2005 before a major earthquake rocked the city and its suburbs.

This was enough for the state government to press the panic button.

Meanwhile, Geological Survey of India wrote back that such development of temperature variation might be there, but there was need for further observation before jumping to any conclusion.

Two smaller intensity earthquakes in the past 24 hours in the north-eastern region have further complicated the picture as there has been growing panic in the state. Assam has witnessed two major earthquakes.

One was in 1897 and another in 1950 and both were above the intensity of 8 on the Ritcher Scale.