The Kachchh (Kutch) region of Gujarat in western India is cut by a set of east-west trending faults that bound an ancient rift basin, including the Kachchh Mainland Fault, the Katrol Hill Fault and the South Wagad Fault. Though far from any plate boundary, this intraplate zone is one of the most seismically dangerous parts of India.
These faults formed originally as normal faults during the rifting that opened the basin, but under the compressive stress of the northward push of the Indian Plate they now move mainly as reverse faults. Strain builds slowly within the stable plate interior and is released in infrequent but powerful earthquakes.
The Kachchh faults produced the catastrophic 2001 Bhuj earthquake of magnitude 7.7, which killed around 20,000 people and destroyed towns across Gujarat, as well as the great 1819 earthquake that created the famous fault scarp known as the Allah Bund. These events make Kachchh a classic and closely studied example of intraplate seismic hazard.