Joshimath cracks likely due to constructions in spring zone, says report

The panel’s “Hydrological investigation report on land subsidence in Joshimath”, submitted before the Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday.

The Central Water Commission has attributed the cracks and ground fissures in Joshimath town of Chamoli district to the rampant construction in the spring zone of the holy town.

In Joshimath, 868 structures have developed cracks and 181 have been declared unsafe so far. (AP)

The panel’s “Hydrological investigation report on land subsidence in Joshimath”, submitted before the Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday, said that the construction of buildings stopped the flow of spring water.

“Cessation of spring flow increases the pore pressure which ultimately rendered the burst of groundwater in form of spring in JP residential premises. In nutshell, construction in spring zone may be the reason for recent land subsidence,” the report said.

It also stressed that “the sudden release of ground water reduces the existing pore pressure and the fluctuation in pore pressure renders the land subsidence in the area. In nutshell, construction in spring zone triggered with seismic activities may be the reason for recent land subsidence”.

The fragile terrain Joshimath town, with a population of around 25,000 people, has over 4,200 structures. Of these, nearly 400 are commercial structures which cater to the large number of pilgrims that visit the town for the Chardham Yatra every year.

This year over 4.1 million pilgrims have visited Char Dham so far, including 1.3 million to Badrinath Dham.

“Occurrence of water-saturated formation becomes deeper from Auli Road to JP Colony… Large boulders are embedded in loose material especially in and around Manohar Bagh. Findings of hydrogeological geophysical studies conducted in the area reveals that the thickness of overburden (loose material) and saturated zone are comparatively more in Manohar Bagh-Singhdhar area, which may cause this area becomes susceptible to land subsidence. Further, the cracks and subsidence in the area have relation with low resistivity shallow zones with groundwater flow occurring within 50 m depth,” the report said. HT has seen a copy of the report.

It was filed during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Almora-based Chipko movement activist and president of Uttarakhand Parivartan Party PC Tiwari.

The court expressed displeasure over keeping the technical reports secret so far. In its September 20 order, the HC said, “We see no reason that the State should keep the reports prepared by the experts secret, and should not disclose the same to the public at large. In fact, circulation of the said reports would provide vital information to the public, and the public would have confidence in them that the State is serious about dealing with the situation, as it is emerged in the aforesaid areas.”

The next hearing on the matter has been fixed on September 25.

In Joshimath, 868 structures have developed cracks and 181 have been declared unsafe so far.

HT had earlier reported experts have attributed high load of new buildings and seeping of thousands of litres of household waste-water into the ground daily in the absence of a sewerage network as a possible reason for the town sinking slowly. Based on satellite imagery, the Indian Remote Sensing Agency had said that Joshimath town sank by 2.5 inches every year between 2020 and March 2022.