'Lived here for 60 yrs but it's all ending now': Joshimath locals in tears as homes marked for demolition

Joshimath: Residents were in tears as they prepared to leave homes marked for demolition after they developed cracks due to land subsidence in Uttarakhand's holy town Joshimath - the gateway to two famous pilgrimage sites Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib.

So far, the administration has identified 678 buildings that have now become unsafe. Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana said that four areas which include two zones in Gandhinagar, one zone in Singhdar, two in Manohar ward, and one in Sunil ward within municipal limits of Joshimath have been declared as unsafe for living and made no entry zones under the Disaster Management Act.

He said the district administration has deployed a team of state disaster response force and directed the officials to carry out the evacuation of people from these zones.

Many of these buildings have been vacated and the process is still underway, Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said on Tuesday. Eight teams of state disaster response force, one team of NDRF, one extra company of PAC, and police officials are present there. Kumar said some areas will be sealed if the need arises and a scientific study of the area is being done.  

Bindu, a resident, whose home has been marked unsafe now, said she lived there for 60 years but now all was ending. "This is my maternal home. I got married at the age of 19. My mother is 80 years old and I have an elder brother. We built this home by working hard and making an earning. We lived here for 60 years but it is all ending now," she told the news agency ANI.

Another local said he has been living in his house since childhood but the administration has now asked the family to leave. "We are sending our family members to relatives' places. We don't have a place to stay," he told the news agency.

Besides homes, two hotels - Hotel Malari Inn and Hotel Mount View - have also been marked for demolition. These hotels have tilted and have come very close to each other due to the sinking. Of these two, Malari Inn will be demolished in a step-wise manner on Tuesday.

Their demolition is essential because there are several houses and hotels around them. If these two sink any further they can collapse, SDRF Commandant Manikant Mishra said while speaking to ANI. "So, experts decided to demolish them. The experts from the Central Building Research Institute are coming, they conducted a survey on Monday," Mishra said.