Earth does not belong to man, but it is man who belongs to the earth. Nature has time and again proved this fact and have shown- who is the master? Nature maintains balance and replenishes & recuperates itself in its own way; but when the carrying capacity of the Nature/Earth breaches a certain threshold limit it responds in the most brutal manner.
Joshimath catastrophe is testimony to this universal reality. Joshimath and nearby areas like karnprayag and guptkashi in Chamoli district are experiencing land subsidence and landslides. Buildings, houses, roads and other existing infrastructure developing fissures and cracks. It seems the whole town is sinking.
Causes-
Immediate cause which triggered the current developments in the Joshimath can be traced to the February 2021 Flood due to glacial lake burst which severely affected and damaged the area. Situation has further worsened since then.
Natural Causes-
Joshimath (Chamoli District), located in the foothills of Garhwal Himalayas at an altitude of 1890 meters, drained by Alaknanda and Bhagirathi River, is prone to Landslides, Land subsidence and Earthquakes due to its fragile nature, geological formations and active tectonism (categorised as High-Risk Seismic Zone-V). Himalayas, the youngest fold mountains in the world are susceptible to high erosion, landslides and earthquakes.
Furthermore, the area around Joshimath town is located on the layer of loose material and highly weathered gneiss rocks which makes it highly vulnerable to sinking.
Again, sinking of land may also be caused by depression in the ground occurred due to water flowing beneath the surface.
Human activities-
Felling of trees for commercial purposes, road construction, urbanization, increasing population, construction of dams and reservoirs destabilize and weaken the topography and further causes land sinking.
Joshimath is a gateway to spiritual and tourist destinations like Badrinath, Hemkund Sahib, Auli etc. Due to this factor Hotels, lodging houses and eateries have mushroomed in this area. Commercial activities have increased in the area, which caused increase in the population and overexploitation of under ground water.
Char-dham Highway project and hydroelectric power projects are also being built to improve connectivity and infrastructure. NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad hydro power project is also a cause of concern, whose tunnel passes through geologically fragile area below Joshimath.
All the above developmental activities have made the area further prone to disasters, and the additional burden caused the soil to dip and has led to the sinking of the town. It seems human causes are primarily responsible for the tragedy in Joshimath.
Early warnings by Committees and reports
Earlier, committees and reports have also emphasized this issue and raised alarm bells in view of increasing human activities in the region.
In 1976, the government-appointed MC Mishra Committee had already warned that Joshimath was sinking and the construction work should be avoided in the area because of its sensitive nature. Furthermore, the “Uttarakhand Disaster 2013 “report by National Institute of Disaster Management identified dam construction as one of the reasons for increasing Landslides.
But irony is that Economic Development always get primacy over sustainable development which leads to major disaster in future.
What is being done-
Joshimath has been declared as a landslide subsidence zone, families are being rehabilitated and relocated to temporary relief centres.
National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun to conduct study of Joshimath through satellite imagery
Technical support of Geological survey of India, which is a nodal agency for such cases, is also being taken
What is to be done-
Landslides and land subsidence are regular features of the Uttarakhand Himalayan ecosystem. Therefore, prevention and mitigation of the disaster is the only way out. Micro-zonation of the area, and after that micro planning of each zone as per their geology should be undertaken
Construction activities and resource exploitation should not go beyond the carrying capacity of the area.
Nature has its own tolerance level and limits which should be respected at any cost. As has been said by Gandhi Ji that “There is enough on earth for everybody’s need, but not enough for everybody’s greed”. When greed takes priority over need and natural resources are exploited beyond the permitted threshold, Nature brings to the fore catastrophe like Joshimath land subsidence. Nature’s ire is nothing short of a warning to human beings, which must be heeded if we want to save our own existence.
