A comprehensive report by eight government-run institutes has been released, revealing that the "sinking town" of Joshimath in the hilly state of Uttarakhand is prone to powerful earthquakes due to a series of devastating land subsidences and quakes forcing people to leave their town.
The report comes days after the Uttarakhand High Court questioned the state government's decision to not make the reports by the experts public.
Ranjit Sinha, secretary of Uttarakhand Disaster Management Department, said in the report that all the construction in the high-risk zone in Joshimath will be demolished.
Joshimath has been divided into four zones - red, black, yellow, and green - according to the report. These zones are determined based on the magnitude of danger from land subsidence, which refers to the sinking or settling of the ground surface.
The residents had previously sent a letter to Uttarakhand state chief, Pushkar Singh Dhami, regarding the explosions in the NTPC project tunnels. However, the company had firmly rejected any connection between their project and the situation in Joshimath.
Cars are seen on a road destroyed by landslides and floods, in Joshimath, India, Friday, June 21, 2013. The heavy rains caused by the annual monsoon have left more than 500 people dead and stranded tens of thousands, mostly pilgrims, in India’s northern mountainous region, officials said Friday.
© AP Photo / Rafiq Maqbool
The experts blamed the crisis on unplanned and chaotic infrastructure projects in the region, especially a power plant that involved blasts and drilling in the mountains.
The eight government-run institutes tasked with assessing the sinking of the ground surface in Joshimath include the Central Building Research Institute, Geological Survey of India, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Geophysical Research Institute, Central Ground Water Board, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, and National Institute of Hydrology and IIT.
What is Joshimath Famous For?
Joshimath was built on the slopes of old landslides. It became famous as the place where religious reformer Adi Shankaracharya attained enlightenment in the eighth century.
Situated just 50 km away from India's border with China, Joshimath is a gateway to highly revered religious Hindu shrines Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib, and to a number of Himalayan mountain climbing expeditions and trekking trails.