Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district has been facing land subsidence, resulting in cracks in homes and other structures, making it risky for residents to live there.
Joshimath also falls on the way to Badrinath, Auli and treks such as the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib. The journey from Delhi/Rishikesh to these destinations is long and so travellers usually spend the night at Joshimath before moving forward. As a result, the town has many homestays.
While the trekking season starts around May and is on till around September, tourists also visit Joshimath in the winters to catch the snowfall and enjoy the cold. However, homestays in the town have now had to shut shop and are unsure how to go about their business in these uncertain times.
According to locals, the two comparatively bigger hotels in the town have been sealed by the civic administration and tourism has also been affected in the town ever since the end of December.
Harendra Rana of Mountain View Abode, said his homestay has developed cracks and he has had to shut down business for the time being. He said a team of experts have come again to survey the town.
"All we can do is wait and watch. The times are so uncertain that we don't know what to do or how to plan anything. It all depends on what the government decides to do," says Rana.
Harish Bhandari of Rupari Homestay said residents are fearing for their lives. "Everyone is scared. We go to sleep in so much fear, not knowing what could happen to our homes and our lives if the situation gets worse than it already is," he said. Bhandari said that even tourists have stopped coming to Joshimath out of fear of what the town is going through.
Himanshu Singh of The Kafal, another homestay, said that the land sinking isn't a new development. "It has been nearly 14 months ever since this issue was first noticed and reported. The civic administration has done nothing about it. No quick action has been taken and now the situation has become serious," he said.
Also Read: Explained | How land 'sinking' is creating cracks in houses of Uttarakhand's Joshimath town
Singh said that the town did not experience snowfall in December-end, which is why the tourists around Christmas and New Year's Eve were less. "Now because the news of the land sinking has spread so much, tourism has stopped completely," he added.
Meanwhile, it is not just the homestay owners at Joshimath who are affected by land sinking.
Abhishek Pawar's homestay is around 7km from Joshimath and he too is facing issues because of the land sinking in the town. Pawar is the owner of Auli, the homestay, which is on the way to Auli. "Tourist footfall has dropped drastically. There were a few tourists till Christmas, but after the news of the sinking started spreading, the footfall has dropped drastically," he said.
Pawar said it hasn't rained yet, when it does, the sinking might get worse. "So we don't know what will happen," he said.
Why is the land in Joshimath sinking?
Land subsidence is when the earth's surface gradually settles or suddenly sinks because of displacement or removal of subsurface materials. Due to this, several pockets of Joshimath are "sinking" as a result of natural and man-made factors, according to an expert committee that was previously entrusted by the state government to survey the issue.
The Chamoli administration on Thursday banned all construction activities in around Joshimath and nearly 50 families who were most at risk have been evacuated, so far, News18.com reported. The locals in the area told CNBC-TV18.com that the ropeway to Auli has also been closed as a safety measure.
Joshimath also falls in a high-risk seismic 'Zone V'. Civic officials have said the town is prone to high seismic activity, which develops cracks in the structures.
Since the first reports of the cracks in 2021 after landslides in Chamoli, over 500 houses have sustained damages or cracks as residents experienced seismic tremors repeatedly in the subsequent year.
Uttarakhand-based environmental conservationist Ela Smetacek, said a lot of places in the state need to be put under the scanner. "Building on earthquake-prone areas, ignoring underground aquifers and not surveying land properly before construction is the reason for this disaster in Joshimath," she aid.
Residents observed a bandh on Thursday to protest against the "idle administration". They said they would continue their protests till the administration took decisive actions on their demands.
"The demands include immediate rehabilitation of residents, stopping construction of an NTPC tunnel and a bypass road between Helang and Marwadi for Badrinath and fixing responsibility of this disaster on the NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project," Atul Sati, convenor of the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, told news agency PTI on Thursday.
(Edited by : C H Unnikrishnan)
First Published: Jan 6, 2023 10:32 AM IST
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