Land subsidence in Uttarakhand caused by human activities, nature: Expert

The land subsidence in Uttarakhand's Joshimath was caused by human activities and nature, said Dr Satyendra Mittal, professor of Civil Engineering Department, Roorkee IIT on Thursday.

Speaking on the continuous landslides in Joshimath of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, Dr Mittal said, "There can be mainly two reasons for the landslide happening in Uttarakhand. One is man-made reason and the other is the nature-born reason. When construction works start happening in an unplanned way, then it is called man-made reason."

"There is under-construction activity in the affected area, the tunnel work is going on and its lining is not completed yet. So in this situation, water, inside the tunnel, seeping out from any point of the tunnel is not surprising," he said.

"The water which is seeping out from some unknown place of the tunnel must be getting accumulated somewhere and when that water gets accumulated beyond the land's capacity, it increases Hydrostatic pressure, whose aftermath is land subsidence," Dr Mittal added.

Taking note of natural reasons, the IIT Roorkee professor said, "an extremely high stream of water stops somewhere due to some unknown reasons, causing a landslide. This is kept in the category of natural causes."

He said that speaking on Joshimath especially, there's a Vishnuprayag, a Hindu Temple which has a confluence of the rivers Alaknanda and Dhauligangs to its south, below it. So because of the confluence of those rivers, the stream of the rivers becomes very high and adds up to the land subsidence.

Rightly stressing measures to stop such disasters, Dr Mittal said, "a team should be constituted for surveying the land, and identify the places from where water seepage is taking place."

"And apart from this, the locals of Joshimath should be trained so that they be prepared for such situations. They should also be taught 'Architectural Art'. They should be given the knowledge of avoiding any work which can be fatal in future," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, a team of experts, including officials from the administration and State Disaster Management, surveyed the areas which were affected in the land subsidence.

Garhwal Commissioner Sushil Kumar and Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha visited the affected areas in the Chamoli district.

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand government formed a team of scientists to find out the reason behind the occurrence of land subsidence in Joshimath and the resultant damage to the houses.

According to an official statement, engineers from the Geological Survey of India, Wadia Institute and IIT Roorkee have been included in the team formed on the instructions of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

The BJP state unit has also formed a 14-member committee, under the coordination of the party's state general secretary Aditya Kothari to assess the land subsidence incident and the damages being reported.

The party's state media in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan said the committee constituted on the instructions of state president Mahendra Prasad Bhatt will visit the site on January 6 and hold talks with local residents, businessmen and public representatives, adding that it will submit its report to the state leadership.

Cracks have reportedly developed in as many as 561 houses in Joshimath as a result of continued land subsidence in the town, stated the District Disaster Management Department.

Following the appearance of cracks in the houses, a total of 66 families are reported to have migrated from Joshimath as of now.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami will hold a high-level meeting in Dehradun on Friday evening in the wake of the land subsidence at Joshimath in Chamoli district, sources said.

Apart from the officials of the Disaster, Irrigation, Home Department, Commissioner Garhwal Mandal and District Magistrate Chamoli will also participate in the meeting.