Aug 20, 2025: In the early hours of Wednesday, the Chamba district was shaken by two simultaneous earthquakes that occurred just over an hour apart. This caused panic among the locals and brought attention once more to the region's vulnerability to earthquake activity. According to the National Centre of Seismology, the first quake, a mild tremor measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale, struck at 3:27 a.m. At a depth of 20 kilometers, it had its center close to Sanwal in the subdivision of Salooni in Chamba. Another relatively stronger quake of magnitude 4.0 occurred just an hour later at 4:39 a.m.

The second tremor was more pronounced on the surface because it was much shallower, only 5 kilometers deep, and had a center that was slightly south of the first one, near Salooni.

According to seismologists, Chamba and nearly the entire state of Himachal Pradesh are located in seismic zone V, which is categorized as a "high damage risk zone." This makes the area particularly prone to frequent earthquakes of varying intensity. Although the majority of tremors in the area are of mild to moderate magnitude, experts warn that stronger earthquakes are still possible due to the zone's seismic profile. In the past few weeks, the district has experienced a number of earthquakes. On July 26, a moderate earthquake of magnitude 4.1 was felt near the Churah subdivision, and on July 11, another quake of magnitude 3.5 was felt near the border of Chamba and Kangra.

On August 18, a 3.9-magnitude earthquake struck the Kangra district, its epicenter being close to the Chamba border.