All construction activity in and around Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli District has been halted in the wake of cracks appearing in buildings in the town.
(Image: ANI/File)
The historical town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand, which is the gateway to pilgrimage centres such as Badrinath, the famous Sikh shrine Hemkund Sahib, the skiing resort Auli, as well as the Valley of Flowers, is sinking.
The town also has strategic importance as the cantonment at Joshimath is near the China border.
More than 600 houses and roads and roads have developed cracks, and the government has ordered the immediate evacuation of families in the area. Land subsidence, largely on account of a breached aquifer (an underground body of rock that holds groundwater), is the reason for this, say geological experts, and warn that the town is unlikely to survive.
Over the years, several hydroelectric, road, and tunnel construction projects have been undertaken in the region, they say.
On Friday, January 6, a temple collapsed in Joshimath’s Singdhar ward causing alarm among residents, who have been living here in fear of an impending disaster. The temple had been abandoned after it developed huge cracks over the past 15 days.
The same day the centre constituted a six-member committee to undertake a ‘rapid study’ of the land subsidence and its overall impact on Joshimath. The committee has been tasked with examining the impact of hydro and highway projects in the area that may have had an impact on the flow of the Ganga, leading to the gradual sinking of the land.
On January 7, Uttarakhand Chief Minister (CM) Pushkar Singh Dhami conducted an aerial and on-ground inspection of the town and met with the displaced families. “Evacuating affected families in the danger zone to safe locations is the government's priority now," he said, adding that the government was working on a long-term rehabilitation strategy.
The immediate steps, say experts, should be to relocate the residents to safe locations, while taking care not to disrupt their livelihoods. The names of two areas that have come up are Pipalkoti, which is around 30 km away, and Gauchar, which is about 90 km away.
The CM has said that suitable places for the relocation of residents near these areas are being identified.
All construction activities related to mega projects like the Char Dham all-weather road and the National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) hydel project have been stopped until further notice. The Auli ropeway was stopped after a huge crack developed beneath it.
Prakash Bhotiyal, who lives in the area, said, “We heard a shattering sound at around 2 am on January 2. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that cracks had developed all over my house. This is largely on account of rampant construction and blasting work going on in the area,” he told Moneycontrol.
Cracks have developed not only in the house he lives in, which he built in 2008, but also in his ancestral house a few kilometres away. “We hope the government relocates us to a safe area, not far from this place so that our livelihoods are not impacted.”
Residents are unhappy with the indifference with which the government has treated warnings pertaining to the state of buildings in the town due to ongoing construction activity. They hold the NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project primarily responsible for the situation.
"We have been drawing the attention of the authorities for the past 14 months, but no one has heard us,” Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti convenor Atul Sati said, pointing out that land subsidence had impacted several houses in November 2021 itself.
“Last year, we had approached Professor S P Sati, who, along with Shubhra Sharma and Navin Juyal, has put together a report on the town titled ‘Towards understanding the cause of soil creep and land subsidence around the historical Joshimath town”, added Atul Sati.
Recently, the town observed a bandh to protest against administrative indifference towards the plight of residents, and the NTPC projects which have led to its gradual sinking. ``The district administration subsequently put a ban on the construction of the Helang bypass by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project, and other construction work undertaken by the municipality with immediate effect,” said Atul Sati.
Professor Harsh Dobhal of Doon University, an expert on Himalayan societies, pointed out that the sinking of Joshimath was significant in that it was not merely the physical sinking of a town, but also the sinking of its culture, society, traditions, and livelihood opportunities.
“This is clearly a man-made disaster due to unplanned migration, urbanisation, and construction, and requires long term solutions and planning in order to be addressed,” he told Moneycontrol.
"One must understand that Joshimath is a commercial centre that provides employment opportunities to people migrating from villages near and far. It is a hub of religious tourism and located close to a skiing resort," Dobhal added.
“There’s a social pattern here — people from villages migrating to towns such as Joshimath in search of jobs, and people from towns such as Joshimath moving to big cities like Dehradun. All along there is unplanned development with rampant construction and poor drainage facilities. Joshimath is a consequence of this,” he explained.
Dobhal further added that land in the hills has a certain load-bearing capacity and that’s been crossed. While relocating people is an important, short-term solution, it is akin to rescuing people from a fire that has spread.
Owing to its importance as a pilgrimage and tourism hub, several hotels and restaurants have come up all over the area. People migrating from villages in search of jobs and the floating population that passes through, not to mention all the construction activity that has taken place, has put a lot of pressure that the town is unable to cope with.
Per the 2011 census, the population of the town was around 20,000, which has since increased significantly and may be around 40,000 today, say experts. There has been a parallel increase in urban activity. There is also a 3 lakh-plus floating population that transits through the town en route to the pilgrimages every summer. In winter, Joshimath hosts holidaymakers on their way to Auli.
"While both the economy and the ecology of a place is expected to go hand-in-hand, that’s not been the case with this town. That’s largely due to the existing resource base and the geological fragility of the terrain," explains Prof Sati.
Joshimath, also known as Jyotirmath, was the capital of the Katyuri dynasty in the 7th century AD. It was around this time that the slopes of Joshimath began to witness increasing human presence. The town is highly revered as it one of the four maths established by the Hindu philosopher and theologian Adi Shankaracharya, and is the winter seat of Lord Badrinath.
Joshimath is located on an old landslide deposit, which was first reported by the Swiss geologists Heim and Gansser way back in 1939. According to them, the slopes, dominated by massive boulders between Joshimath and Tapovan, were formed by a landslide in the geological past from a mountain crest located around 4,000 m east of the Kuari pass.
These slopes were subsequently inhabited as they provided the required soil cover for agriculture and vegetation (for fuel and fodder). The multiple streams and natural springs with their recharge area in the upper alpine catchment provided much-needed water for irrigation and domestic consumption, explained Prof Sati.
"However, something went wrong during the late 1960s, when this religious and historical town began to show evidence of slope creep associated with subsidence at many locations, thus threatening the livelihood of the people along with the existence of the township. The threat became so alarming that in 1976, the then Uttar Pradesh government constituted a committee to investigate the causes of land subsidence. The study is known as the Mishra Committee Report," he said.
The committee recommended that further construction in the area should be undertaken only after examining the stability of the site, and restrictions should be imposed on excavation on slopes. They said that boulders should not be removed by digging or blasting, and no tree should be cut in the landslide zone.
It recommended that extensive tree-planting work should be done in the area, particularly between Marwari and Joshimath, and that cracks which had developed on the slopes should be sealed. Also, hanging boulders on the foothills should be provided with appropriate support, and erosion-prevention (of river banks) and river training measures should be taken up. River training is the construction of structures to guide the river’s flow.
Although the region has been witnessing soil creep and land subsidence for the past few decades, the process accelerated after November 2021 following the Rishi Ganga disaster, when flash floods led to the loss of several lives.
"We have observed that the hyper-concentrated flood discharge destabilised old landslide deposits, eroding the 'toe' (bottom-most point) of the landslide and creating landslide scars at multiple locations along the Dhauli Ganga river till Marwari (located below Joshimath). A landslide scar is the bare surface of a slope post the removal of soil due to a landslide.
"Such landslide scars may lead to progressively move down the slope, causing land subsidence. The process may continue till the toe of the landslide is stabilised. This may persist for years or decades, provided there is no further destabilisation of the slopes by either anthropogenic processes (road cutting/widening, excavation of boulders, and inadequate provision for the disposal of domestic water), or natural processes like toe erosion by the Dhauli Ganga river or the multiple tributary streams cutting through old landslide deposits.
"The bitter truth is that Joshimath is subsiding and there are no geo-engineering measures by which we can save the area," said Atul Sati.
He added that residents have recommended that they be moved to safer areas located closer to Joshimath so that the economic fabric was not disturbed and people continued to live close to their ancestral dwellings.
"We have suggested four parcels ‑ sanrakshan vibhaag land which is around 100 nali, van bhibhag land which is around 200-300 nali, kotifarm land which is around 400-500 nali, and government acquired land in Auli," he told Moneycontrol. One nali is about 206 square metres.
R K Pandey, Executive Director, Disaster Management and Mitigation, Government of Uttarkhand, said that going forward, environmental impact analysis of all projects in the region should be done. These should not be restricted to Joshimath alone, but include other hill towns such as Kedarnath, Nanital, and Mussoorie as well.
"It’s time the government came up with a land use policy. A landslide vulnerability atlas was last published in 2003. That had said that 70 percent of the area in Uttarakhand was susceptible to landslides. This meant that 30 percent were either under snow or part of water bodies, forcing people to settle in risky zones," he added.
Another reason why Joshimath has come under tremendous stress is because like most settlements in the Himalayan zone, this town too has built on debris, which is susceptible to degradation, and is loaded beyond its carrying capacity.
"Joshimath's foundation is vulnerable as it was developed on the debris of a landslide triggered by an earthquake more than a century ago. It’s located in seismic zone V, which is more prone to earthquakes," he said.
RCC (reinforced concrete) is used rampantly in this zone. "Where you should have built only one storey, you have built four. By building roads, you have disturbed slopes," he explained.
