Joshimath Sinking Update: Situation worsens, NDRF teams evacuate residents after geologists find reason for subsidence

The dark clouds of disaster looms large over Joshimath, the tourist town in Uttarakhand, which has been in the news for being demarcated a ‘sinking zone’. In the last 48 hours, the number of houses damaged due to landslides has increased to 603. Due to the rapidly changing situation, thousands of families living in the disaster-affected areas are being evacuated by the Central team of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) to safer areas. Himanshu Khurana, Magistrate of Chamoli's district under which the area falls, has personally appealed to the residents to move to the relief camp.

The district administration has started evacuating its government buildings located in Joshimath after cracks appeared in it. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting in New Delhi with experts on this issue, after which the Central agencies have become active. Reports say, the Central Government has deployed one team of NDRF and four teams of SDRF in Joshimath town area.

According to Geologist Piyoosh Rautela, water discharged from a burst subterranean aquifer (rock formation that holds groundwater) on the intervening night of January 2 and 3 resulted in cracks developing in houses and other concrete structures in the town. The Telegraph has quoted Rautela as saying, “Four to five hundred litres of water is coming out of this underground water source every minute. Due to this icy water, the erosion of the geological rock is taking place.” However, it was not known what the size of this underground water source was and why it had suddenly burst, he added.

Geologists have found in their preliminary investigation that the sudden spurt in land subsidence of Joshimath is due to the bursting of an underground water source in the first week of January. But scientists warned of such a crisis decades ago. Piyush Rautela warned in a science journal published in the year 2010 that there are signs of increasing tension due to human activities in this area. Rautela says, "This crisis has not arisen because of this one reason only. Many other factors are also responsible for this."

Rautela had said in his science journal that there are signs of continuous land subsidence in Joshimath. He had also warned that due to the sudden bursting of any underground water source or emptying of any underground water source, there could be a danger of land subsidence. Garhwal Commissioner Sushil Kumar has also confirmed that the situation has worsened after the underground water source burst last week.