Joshimath Land Sinking
Why in news :
- Cracks first appeared in a few houses in Uttarakhand’s Joshimath town in October 2021. Over a year later, by
- January 11, 2023, 723 houses in all of the nine wards in the town had developed major or minor cracks on the floors, ceilings and walls.
- In response, 145 families have been temporarily moved to safer locations within the town.
Cultural signifance :
- At a height of 6,107 feet, Joshimath is a busy town in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
- The town is a gateway to noted sites of pilgrimage — Badrinath for Hindus and Hemkund Sahib for Sikhs; the international skiing site of Auli; and the Valley of Flowers, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Despite a population of only about 23,000, it has been heavily built-on, with hotels, resorts, and a bustling market that caters mainly to tourists, pilgrims, trekkers.
Strategic significance :
- After the 1962 India-China war, Joshimath emerged as a place of strategic importance as it leads to villages along the India-China border.
- It is also en route to Barahoti, a disputed territory along the border.
Irresponsible development lead to land subsidence :
- Joshimath’s geological setting, together with the unplanned and rampant construction in and around the town, has resulted in land subsidence.
Geological terrain of the region :
- Joshimath is built on the deposits of an old landslide, which means that the slopes can be destabilised even by slight triggers.
- The town is also in Zone V, which, as per India’s seismic zonation scheme, denotes the highest risk.
- It lies between two thrusts, the Main Central Thrust (MCT) and the Vaikrita Thrust (VT), and thus occupies a seismically active terrain.
- Joshimath is also prone to extreme weather. “Climatologically, Joshimath lies in a region that frequently receives high-intensity, focussed rainfall.
- A report on Joshimath published by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) in September 2022 said that the floods of June 2013 and February 2021 heightened erosion in the area.
- Very heavy rains in October 2021 — 190 mm in 24 hours — worsened the subsidence and vulnerability to landslides, it stated.
- The committee’s report of 1976 warned against heavy and unscientific construction in the town, writing: “Joshimath is a deposit of sand and stone … hence was not a suitable place for the coming up of a township.”
- Vibrations produced by blasting and heavy traffic will also lead [to] disequilibrium in natural factors.”
- However, Joshimath continued to develop exactly the way the Mishra committee had advised against.
Other developmental projects which may be the cause for land subsidence :
- Locals have blamed the National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) 520MW Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project, under construction in the area, for exacerbating Joshimath’s land subsidence.
- On December 24, 2009, a tunnel boring machine punctured an aquifer some three km from Selang village, which is only about five km from Joshimath.
- The sixkm Helang-Marwari bypass, being built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), is also under scrutiny for weakening slopes and further destabilising the local topography.
- The bypass is part of the 825km Char Dham highway expansion project in Uttarakhand, which experts have already questioned for unscientific slope-cutting, which resulted in several landslides.
- The 2022 USDMA report also pointed to a lack of drainage and wastewater disposal systems as being part of the subsidence problem.
- About 85% of buildings in the town — including those owned by the Army — aren’t connected to a sewerage system and have soak pits instead.
- The 1976 Mishra committee report had warned that these pits could create “cavities between soil and boulders”, as well as that inadequate drainage could lead to landslides.
- Garhwal University’s Mr. Sundriyal has said that such cavities result in land subsidence as well.
Syllabus : Prelims + Mains; GS1 – Indian Geography, GS3- Disaster Management
