Joshimath: The land below their feet sinking, helpless residents of Joshimath town were gathered in front of the battered Malari Inn hotel for a second consecutive day of protests Wednesday. They were demanding “fair compensation” for being driven out of their homes and possibly the town itself.
Tensions between the displaced residents on the one side, and the state and district administration on the other, peaked as the two groups negotiated over a suitable compensation package. During a meeting Wednesday morning, aggrieved home owners jostled to have their voices heard, their frustration palpable.
“We want a one-time payment that will satisfy all our needs. This means at least Rs 5 lakh in interim relief,” said one resident during the meeting. Another piped in, “Several families have settled in Joshimath from their native villages. But for some of us here, Joshimath is our native place, and the only place we have ever known. The others can resettle in their villages, but what about us?”
The government has announced Rs 1.5 lakh per family as interim relief, after residents pushed back against a previous offer of Rs 4,000 per month for the foreseeable future.
Thakur Singh Rana, owner of the Malari Inn hotel, said he wanted compensation equivalent to what those displaced by the beautification of the Badrinath temple received, which was reportedly twice the circle rate of land under the Land Acquisition Act.
“We are offering to pay the market rate as per the formula under the Land Acquisition Act. We’re also willing to relocate families within Joshimath or outside,” R. Meenakshi Sundaram, secretary to the chief minister, told ThePrint.
He added, “Parity cannot be drawn to Badrinath. In that instance, the government wanted to develop it as a tourist spot. This is compensation for a disaster. If parity is to be drawn, it should be with the Varunavat landslide.”
Rana’s hotel is among the structures earmarked for safe demolition, so that it doesn’t collapse further and imperil the dozens of houses that stand just behind it. However, residents are unlikely to allow the demolition to go through till they arrive at an agreement.
Also Read: Why is Joshimath sinking? ‘Construction on unstable land, poor drainage, deforestation’
Extent of damage
Home to more than 20,000 people, Joshimath has been struck by land subsidence — a phenomenon that causes the land to cave into itself. It’s an eventuality that experts have long warned of, seeing as the town stands on landslide debris, lacks proper drainage and sewerage systems, and is caught in the middle of large developmental projects ploughing through a fragile ecosystem.
Hundreds were rendered homeless overnight between 28 December and 3 January, when their houses and roads began to crack open as the subsidence accelerated. At least 723 houses were found with cracks, according to official estimates.
The extent of damage to the town, which sits at 6,000 feet above sea level in the Garhwal Himalayas, is still being ascertained. As the land gave way, a burst of water rushed up through one of the cracks on 7 January and hasn’t stopped flowing since. The water forced its way through the walls of the Vishnuprayag Hydro Electric Plant, damaging it.
“It seems like some part of the water table has burst. But we can only say this for certain depending on how long the water flows for, and whether it subsides. We have taken a sample of the water to try and find the source,” said Professor M.P.S. Bisht, director of the Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (USAC).
A source who did not wish to be named told ThePrint that the USAC is likely to come up with a projection for how much more land in the town is likely to sink.
The Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun carried out a satellite image survey and found that the rate of subsidence in the region had accelerated significantly between 2020 and 2022. It found that the region has been sinking at a pace of 6.5cm each year.
‘A cancer that’s reached its last stage’
Cracks in homes started appearing as early as October 2021, according to Atul Sati, an activist who said he had warned the district administration about land subsidence in the area.
According to him, the biggest contributors are the widening of the Char Dham road, and ongoing work for the Tapovan Vishnugad Hydropower Plant — a project by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The project has been mired in controversy for decades, and its partial destruction in the 2021 Chamoli disaster led to the deaths of more than 200 people.
Environmentalists have warned against large developmental projects in the area without carrying out adequate studies first.
“There has been no carrying capacity study of the area. Even after the 2021 disaster, when the toehold of the mountain was eroded, no studies were done for the proper restoration of the area,” said Hemant Dhyani, an environmentalist who was part of the Supreme Court’s high-powered committee for the Char Dham Project. “We had set down a protocol as a committee, which should be implemented. Now it’s like a cancer that’s reached its last stage.”
The extent to which the NTPC project contributed to the land subsidence in Joshimath is being studied by teams from the ministries of jal shakti and environment, secretary Sundaram said.
Also Read: Parts of Joshimath town ‘sinking’, Uttarakhand govt may go for ‘construction ban, relocation’
Warning from the 70s
In 1976, a report by a Union government-appointed panel, led by civil servant M.C. Mishra, found that Joshimath lies over “a deposit of sand and stone — it is not the main rock — hence it was not suitable for a township”.
The report further warned against the removal and blasting of boulders along the hillside, that major construction activities should be restricted, and that water seepage from the soil should be properly removed through drainage channels to avoid landslides.
An official with the National Disaster Management Authority said the construction work on the NTPC tunnel could have acted like a “trigger,” but that the underlying cause is rampant urbanisation without proper drainage and sewerage systems.
“Waste water is seeping into the ground without any channel to go through, making a weak foundation weaker. There must be stricter by-laws for the construction of buildings, with proper sewerage and drainage systems,” the official said.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
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