Joshimath Land Subsidence: Tourists Not Reaching Auli; What Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Dhami Said About Present Crisis

Joshimath: Tourists are not reaching Auli amid reports of landslide in Joshimath. Hotel owners say that their business has decreased by 80 percent.

ISRO report mysteriously withdrawn

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) released satellite images of Joshimath. In which it was shown that between December 27, 2022 and January 8, 2023, Joshimath has slipped down by 5.4 cm. But now that report has been mysteriously withdrawn. The land subsidence report in Joshimath is no longer available on the website of the National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

It is a natural calamity: Dhami

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami made it clear that the land subsidence crisis in Joshimath is a natural calamity. No one else is responsible for this. The government has cited the 1976 Mishra Committee report for this. In which it was said that there is no layer of hard rocks under Joshimath and the base of the city is weak. 

Situation can become worse: Activists

However, many social activists and local environmentalists said that this approach of the government would mean that the continuous construction in this area would not be blamed for the crisis. Which can actually make the situation worse.

On the crisis of land subsidence in Joshimath, the Uttarakhand government said that an expert committee will investigate it, in which the role of NTPC's power project will also be investigated.

Many houses had collapsed on Jan 2

Many houses had collapsed in the intervening night of 2nd and 3rd January in Joshimath's Sinhadhar. However, no one died in these incidents. a local said that at around 2.30 am on January 2, when we were sleeping, the noise of walls falling was heard and big pieces of concrete started falling. We were scared and spent the night under the open sky. We were sent to a nearby government school the next day.

NTPC says its project has no role in land subsidence

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has said its construction project has no role in the land subsidence. Stressing that a 12-kilometer long tunnel linked to the Tapovan Vishnugad hydroelectric project is 1 km away from the Joshimath town, it has written to the power ministry. "The tunnel is at a horizontal distance of around 1.1 km away from the outer boundary of Joshimath town and vertically around 1.1 km below the ground level," NPTC wrote in the letter.