By Vani Mehrotra: Thirty-eight-year-old Rekha, who spent years of her life at a house located in the centre of Joshimath town, is unable to come to terms with the catastrophic land subsidence, which is forcing her to leave her abode. Though the authorities marked her home with a red cross, which signifies a ‘danger zone’, Rekha was unwilling to leave.
Having no alternative, a teary-eyed Rekha finally took some pictures and videos of her home, before she stepped out.
A similar fate awaits Bindu, whose house saw deep cracks and so has been marked with a red-cross.
Her husband, Sanjay, who returned from Dehradun, is numb and clueless about what the future holds for his family.
Another resident, Prakash Bhutiyal, said cracks had developed in seven of the 11 rooms in a guesthouse he runs that also serves as his home.
The family was waiting to be moved to a safer location.
Like Rekha, Bindu and Prakash, thousands of residents in Joshimath woke up to a rude shock after they noticed cracks and ruptures in the core of their houses.
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The Uttarakhand town, a gateway to Badrinath and Hemkunt Sahib, is on the verge of collapse.
Facing the constant trauma of land subsidence, Joshimath has majorly been affected by anthropogenic activities, along with climate change factors, experts have claimed.
Nearly 700 buildings, out of a total of 4,500, have developed major cracks, forcing authorities to evacuate families and even demolish several structures.
Nearly 80 families have so far been moved to safer places, while the evacuation process is still on.
JOSHIMATH’S GEOLOGICAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Located on the middle slope of a hill, the Joshimath town is built on the debris of a landslide triggered by an earthquake more than a century ago. The town is located in a tremor-prone zone.
Experts said land can sink for various reasons, including the movement of the Earth’s crust (its thin outer shell of rock) or due to an earthquake that can cause a shift in elevation.
A sinkhole – a depression or hole in the ground caused by the collapse of the surface layer – can occur when water flowing underground erodes rocks beneath the surface.
However, human activity also contributes to land sinking, like over-extraction of groundwater and drainage of aquifers – which geologists believe may have led to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, sinking faster than any other city in the world.
More than 80 per cent of land subsidence across the world is caused due to excessive extraction of groundwater, according to the US Geological Survey.
HAS UNDERGROUND DEVELOPMENT WORK AFFECTED JOSHIMATH?
Experts and residents have long warned that large-scale construction in and around the town of Joshimath, including work for power projects by companies such as state-run NTPC, could lead to land subsidence.
“Six structures across four wards have been found very unsafe,” top district official Himanshu Khurana was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“We will demolish some unsafe buildings based on the recommendation and under the guidance of federal experts.”
Two buildings have already been scheduled for demolition, he said, but did not say when.
Earlier, Khurana said work had been suspended on some border road projects as well as NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad, a 520-megawatt hydropower plant.
WHAT GOVERNMENT SAYS ON JOSHIMATH LAND SUBSIDENCE
India’s largest power producer, NTPC, says its tunnelling and other work cannot be blamed for the cracks in the town of about 17,000 people.
“There is no way the project is behind the subsistence,” said a government official, adding that NTPC suspended tunnelling work in the area more than two years ago after a boring machine got stuck.
“Blasts in unavoidable circumstances have been carried out miles away from the population and the affected area,” added the official, who sought anonymity in the absence of authorisation to speak to the media.
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The tunnel concerned was a kilometre distant from the affected area and a kilometre underground, the official added.
Scientists worry over the effect of climate change on the world’s highest mountains was triggered after a 2021 flash flood in the district killed or left missing about 200 people, besides damaging two hydroelectric projects being built.
One of them was the NTPC project.
DEMOLITION WORK FROM TODAY
Demolition by bulldozers, which was supposed to begin on Tuesday, was put on hold after protests from angry locals. Traders, including shop and hotel owners claimed they were informed about the demolition activity beforehand.
Traders have also put forth their concerns of loss of business and money, if the structures are demolished.
Meanwhile, reports have claimed that the land subsidence and similar disasters are not limited to just Joshimath.
Residents of Karnaprayag, a town seen as the gateway to Joshimath, have said they are noticing massive cracks in nearly 50 homes of Bahuguna Nagar locality.
ALSO READ | After Joshimath, panic grips Aligarh as cracks appear in homes
