Joshimath crisis: Isro report on land subsidence missing from govt website

The government website does not have a report from the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) Hyderabad that shows land subsidence in Uttarakhand's ‘sinking' town Joshimath. It has vanished from its original domain.

The ISRO-NRSC report, which clearly demonstrated Joshimath's slow and rapid land subsidence since April 2022, is not available for the public. When a user clicks on www.nrsc.gov.in, a 'Not Found' page appears.

"The requested URL/sites/default/files/pdf/Announcements/Joshimath_landslide_11Jan2023.pdf was not found on this server," it read.

The Uttarakhand hill town experienced rapid subsidence between December 27, 2022, and January 8, 2023, according to preliminary results based on satellite data compiled by the NRSC and ISRO. It sank by 5.4 cm.

The Uttarakhand government is conducting rescue operations in hazardous areas and relocating residents there to safer locations on a priority basis based on the preliminary report from ISRO.

The pdf report's link is no longer active. The report made clear how serious things were in the holy town in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district.

"The region subsided around -5 cm within a span of a few days and the areal extent of subsidence has also increased. But it is confined to the central part of Joshimath town," Isro said in a release with the satellite imagery.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) stated in an office memo that there would be no media interaction regarding the Joshimath crisis.

"It is seen that government institutions are releasing data related to the subject on social media and they are also interacting with the media on their own interpretation of the situation. It is creating confusion not only among affected residents but also among citizens of the country. The issue has been highlighted in a meeting of Home Minister on January 12," it read.

The decision was made after Amit Shah presided over a meeting on the Joshimath crisis and the scientists were advised not to speak to the media.

The "Crown of the subsidence is located near Joshimath-Auli road at a height of 2180 metres," according to researchers who found a zone of subsidence that resembled a typical landslide shape.

"Slow subsidence up to 9 cm within the Joshimath town recorded over a period of 7 months, between April and November 2022," Isro said.

Land subsidence is posing a serious problem for Joshimath, which serves as a gateway to popular pilgrimage sites like Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib as well as the popular international skiing resort of Auli. As more and more homes have developed cracks, forcing residents to relocate to government-run relief centres, it is obvious that a disaster is imminent.

The town's geography is the main factor contributing to Joshimath's sinking. Experts have long warned that the landslide debris on which the city was built has a low bearing capacity and cannot support a high rate of construction. The slopes have become extremely unstable in the last few decades due to increased construction, hydroelectric projects, and the widening of the National Highway.

Pushkar Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, presided over a cabinet meeting on Friday during which a number of decisions were made to help the affected citizens, including a one-year moratorium on bank loan recovery and a six-month waiver of water and electricity bills. Cabinet ministers will contribute their entire month's pay to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund in order to help the people of the sinking town.

There are currently 760 homes with cracks, 147 of which have been classified as unsafe. The Malari Inn hotel has also started to be demolished because it has developed significant cracks and is leaning dangerously toward the nearby Mount View hotel. According to officials, the demolition is being done under the technical direction of the Central Building Research Institute in Roorkee.

42 impacted families have already received interim aid totaling Rs 1.5 lakh, according to Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana.

The government of Uttarakhand will look into whether land subsidence caused by NTPC's underground tunnel work also resulted in cracks appearing in an already "sinking" Joshimath. The Joshimath landslides' root cause will be looked into by eight institutes.

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