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Journal of Geography & Natural Disasters

Mini Review

Joshimath Crises: Warning of Nature

Ankush Sharma*
Department of Environmental Sciences, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, India

ABSTRACT
Anthropogenic activities have been playing a major role in the destabilization of Joshimath. The possibility of
a land subsidence incident happening in the region was first highlighted around 50 years by the MC Mishra
Committee report. The unplanned construction of buildings, the Tapovan Vishnugad Hydro Project and
the Char Dham Road Project that is being implemented in the Uttarakhand is contributing to the recent
subsidence in Joshimath. Thousands of lives are at a greater risk of getting endangered due to such large-scale
infrastructural activities. For instance, the Joshimath subsidence has traumatised the lives of around 3000
people.
Keywords: Joshimath; Land Subsidence; Construction; Hydro-power projects; Sustainable development

INTRODUCTION Such a waste of a precious resource! Multiple adverse effects would

result from an aquifer suddenly releasing water, but it would be
Joshimath, which houses the Adi Shankaracharya Monastery and premature to consider all of them at the present time. The nearby
serves as the entrance to the Badrinath temple, was constructed on springs have been reported to dry up because of the water pouring
the landslide deposits that happened years ago, making the slopes out via the tunnel. This would lead to a drinking water deficit in
susceptible to destabilization from even minor triggers. The town is the neighbourhood surrounding Joshimath during the summer [1].
also in India's seismic zonation scheme's Zone V, which denotes the
highest danger. The town began to undergo sudden land-sinking Char dham project: Char Dham Project is a project that was
in huge areas and several residences started witnessing significant inaugurated in 2016 by Prime Minister Modi at a cost of around
cracking in October 2021, but the situation only worsened around 120 billion crore rupees. It was taken up to link all the four major
the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. pilgrimage sites namely Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and
Yamunotri. Helong Marwari Bypass Road which is around 6 km in
LITERATURE REVIEW length is a part of the 800 km long ‘Char Dham’ project which has
led to the weakening of the slopes and has contributed to upsetting
Major causes the topographical stability.
Tourism destination: Joshimath has become a gateway for famous
Hydro power projects: Numerous hydropower projects have been treks and religious sites, attracting tourists and pilgrims from all
proposed and worked upon close to the sinking town. over the world. This has led to the establishment of many hotels,
Tapovan vishnugad hydro power project: It is NTPC’s second restaurants in the town. The soil beneath may not be able to carry
hydropower project, constructed in the year 2006. During its the load of the never ending infrastructure developments in the
working, the head race tunnel was dug out using a Tunnel Boring region.
Machine (TBM) as a result of which on December 24, 2009, it Random urbanization: Unplanned construction in the region
punctured a stratum containing water about 3 kilometers inside without any detailed check regarding the soil type, habit, topography
the left bank of the Alaknanda, close to the town of Shelong. may also have contributed in the present crises.
According to the project's administrators, the site was located
more than a kilometre below the surface, somewhere below Auli. Seismic V zone: Joshimath is an earthquake prone zone falling
According to reports, the water discharge was between 700 and under Zone V category, therefore construction, developments of
800 litres per second and about 60–70 million litres per day, or any kind are harmful to the region and the people residing in that
enough water to support 2-3 million people, was discharged from region.
the aquifer. The aquifer was not drained out even after a month. Mishra committee report: The problem of land subsidence

Correspondence to: Ankush Sharma, Department of Environmental Sciences, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, India, E-mail:
[email protected]
Received: 29-Jan-2023, Manuscript No. JGND-23-21600; Editor assigned: 01-Feb-2023, PreQC No. JGND-23-21600 (PQ); Reviewed: 16-Feb-2023,
QC No. JGND-23-21600; Revised: 23-Feb-2023, Manuscript No. JGND-23-21600 (R); Published: 02-Mar-2023, DOI: 10.35841/2167-0587.23.13.259
Citation: Sharma A (2023) Joshimath Crises: Warning of Nature. J Geogr Nat Disasters. 13: 259
Copyright: © 2023 Sharma A. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Sharma A OPEN ACCESS Freely available online

in Joshimath was identified nearly 50 years ago. MC Mishra camp for the Indian army and the road structure passing through
Committee was formed in 1976, that identified the reasons behind the Joshimath is of great strategic importance. Joshimath due to an
this phenomenon. They published their report in ‘The Mishra attractive tourist destination has led to many hotels, restaurants,
Committee Report of 1976’. It is the oldest report on Joshimath’s and other establishments that in turn have resulted in construction
land subsidence problem. According to the report submitted by the activities that might have contributed greatly towards the present
Mishra committee, Joshimath is a deposit of sand and stone, hence situation as shown in Figure 1.
it was not a suitable place for the coming up of a township. The
report warned against signing up for heavy construction without
checking the soil loading capacity of the region and also advised not
to remove boulders by digging or blasting the hillside. The reports
even pointed out that the drainage facilities in the city wasn’t
proper. Despite the warnings provided by the committee, various
projects were taken up in the region whose construction involved
blasting leading to instability in the topography of the region.
Ground water removal: Subsidence happens when a great volume
of groundwater is withdrawn from specific types of rocks, such as
fine-grained sediments. The water helps to keep the ground in
place but when the ground water is removed, the rocks collapse,
crumble and start sinking.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC): Figure 1: A woman sits beside a cracked wall of her house at Joshimath
in Chamoli district (AFP).
On December 5, 2014, a "concerned" Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) filed an affidavit in the
Supreme Court stating that "any decision on developmental Reports reveal that the city was developed and established about
projects, especially hydropower projects, should be on very strong 100 years ago and that it witnessed an earthquake in the nearby
and sound footings with scientific back up. But on August 17, valley that resulted in the rocks coming down and settling in the
2021, the MoEFCC filed an application with the Supreme Court area upon which the Joshimath is established [3]. This is one of the
claiming that in a sharp departure from 2014, an agreement had many reasons why the land is not suitable for heavy construction,
been made between the MoEFCC, the power ministry, the Jal especially for the roads as well as the hydropower developmental
Shakti ministry, and the Uttarakhand government to continue activities, reason being that these types of high-level developmental
development on seven hydroelectric projects: activities need heavy explosives and drilling and thus by explosion
these slopes may lose their holdings [4].
• Tehri II (1,000 MW)
According to the Seismic zone map of India the area of Joshimath
• Tapovan Vishnugad (520 MW) falls in the zone 5, which is the highest risk zone for earthquakes.
• Vishnugad Pipalkoti (444 MW) The cracks on the walls of the houses are not a new story. In
October 2021, the Gandhinagar area of Joshimath witnessed
• Singoli Bhatwari (99 MW) slight cracks on the walls. In September 2022, Uttarakhand State
• Phata Byung (76 MW) Disaster Management Authority published a report and blamed
that the improper and unplanned construction are the major
• Madmaheshwar (15 MW), and causes. But the question is who is to be blamed? According to TV
• Kaliganga II (4.5 MW) reporters, the people of Joshimath are responsible for the crises
because they were not supposed to construct heavy buildings in
This was followed by another report published in 2006 by Wadia
this zone and that they should have not engaged in the unplanned
Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) which stated that there
constructions. The public however blames the Government for
might be an eventual collapse of the entire city and that the
the havoc; the government on the other hand contends that the
drainage services in the region needed repairs. In 2013 a committee
builders/contractors are at fault whereas the builders place the
appointed by the Supreme Court, identified the hydro-power
blame squarely on the nature [5].
projects in Uttarakhand, as a significant hazard to the area, the
construction of hydropower projects, but the said report fell on CONCLUSION
deaf ears as no action was taken by the government at the needed
time [2]. Land subsidence phenomenon is irreversible as said by ISRO. The
Joshimath crises speaks volumes of our failure to respect the special
DISCUSSION characteristics and features of the Himalayan mountainous system
in our pursuit of economic development. Overall, the problem can
Joshimath is a town situated in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district
simply be classified as the problem of sustainable development.
having a population of about 23000. Apart from being a pilgrimage
After the evacuation, the drainage system, rainwater outlets need
site as well as a gateway for various renowned treks, the town is
to be re-planned and there should be a rock strength assessment,
famous for the Auli skiing centre which is promoted as an
to determine the sustainability and strength of these rocks. All the
international skiing centre by the Government. The India-China
construction activities should be banned in risk prone areas, so
border is also near to the town. The region serves as a major base
that another crises like Joshimath does not happen.

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Sharma A OPEN ACCESS Freely available online

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