Though experts suggested that heavy construction should be prevented in the area more than four decades ago, governments have pushed through a hydel project and an ambitious yet controversial highway project in the region. https://thewire.in/environment/joshimath-himalayas-explainer-warnings-reports-construction-ntpc
The report by the Committee, which The Wire accessed, noted that the town of Joshimath is situated where it should ideally never be: on an “ancient landslide”, a mixture of sand and stone. Thus, surface water – from rains or snow melts – can percolate into the loose soil and destabilise the land, resulting in landslides, it noted.
This movement of earth in the subsurface can cause the land to settle down, or ‘sink’ – a phenomenon called land subsidence. Studies show that the extraction of ground water can also cause subsidence. Heavy construction activities such as blasting and underground tunnelling (which, as per residents, currently occur in the landscape as part of the ongoing Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel power project) can aggravate the situation.
In fact, “vibrations produced by blasting and heavy traffic will also lead [to] disequilibrium in natural factors”, the 1976 Mishra report noted.
11/01/2023