18 hours on, teacher’s forecast comes true

PATNA: What Motihari schoolteacher Umesh Prasad Verma had predicted on Monday evening, proved exactly true on Tuesday noon.
Based on his calculations, Verma predicted an earthquake of a magnitude of above 6 would hit Nepal within 48 hours. But a more severe quake hit the region just 18 hours later. He had texted his prediction to many, including this correspondent.
Talking to TOI from Motihari on phone, Verma said he also predicted the April 25 earthquake but he could not foresee the exact location of the quake then. Had he got access to local seismic data and electromagnetic flux, he would have forecast the exact time and location of earthquakes, he claimed.
Even though Verma was nominated a member of the state innovative council last year by chief minister Nitish Kumar, he has not been provided any facility for carrying out researches on earthquakes and analysing seismic data.
He feels handicapped as he has to manage time from engaging classes for doing some work on earthquake. In the past, he has successfully predicted dozens of earthquakes in different parts of the globe on the basis of his calculations. His method of calculation has been appreciated by seismologists from different scientific organizations of the world, including NASA.
Verma said another earthquake is likely to hit this region soon as the energy accumulated in the earth’s interior has not released fully so far.