Land sinking in Srinagar: Six homes develop cracks in Rainawari 

Jammu and Kashmir: At least six residential buildings in Srinagar's Rainawari locality have developed cracks and suffered damage due to suspected land subsidence, news agency PTI reported on Wednesday. The administration has vacated the homes and formed an expert committee to ascertain the details and suggest remedial measures, the report said. 

The officials told the news agency that some homes in the Khwajapora Surteng area of Rainawari started to develop cracks on June 17, which became wider over the next few days. The locals believe the homes began to develop cracks after some portions of the land began to sink. "The cracks widened with each passing day. We approached the administration, which asked us to vacate the houses," resident Manzoor Ahmed was quoted as saying by PTI. 

The situation has sparked panic among the locals. Deputy Commissioner (Srinagar) Bilal Mohi-Ud-Din Bhat, who is also chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority, has formed an expert committee to ascertain the details and suggest remedial measures. 

A nine-member committee has been formed to study the cause and suggest measures for preventing environmental damage. The committee is headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Srinagar) Syed Ahmad Kataria and includes Ghulam Jeelani, a professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Kashmir. 

The area was hit by land subsidence in 1999-2000, after which a case study was done by a team of experts led by Bikram Singh Bali from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Kashmir. The study found that the surface change phenomena was due to extensive underground mining related to the pottery industry, which had a hundred-year history in the area at that time. It said the area witnessed land subsidence for the past several decades and, in the process, most structures suffered extensive damage. 

"Major sub-surface observations made were underground cavities, room, and pillar mining structures and voids. In addition to the sub-surface structures caused by the mining in the historical past, the surface deformations were observed in the form of cracks developed in the construction," the study had said. 

Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed land subsidence incidents in the recent past as well. In April, 74 families were forced to leave their homes in Pernote village of Ramban district due to land sinking. Two months before that, more than a dozen residential buildings and a mosque in the Garsu village of Doda district developed cracks. In July 2023, cracks were seen on the riverside road in Batengo of Anantnag district. In April of that year, cracks were observed on the Tingshore hill in the Halmatpora area of Kupwara.

In January last year, nearly 700 buildings and roads developed crack in Joshimath town in Uttarakhand. 

(With inputs from PTI)