Land subsidence is the gradual settling or sudden sinking of the Earth’s surface because of underground material movement.
The tragedy in Joshimath, Uttarakhand is a severe reminder of the harm caused by haphazard infrastructure development and the role of climate change in exacerbating the situation.
The immediate cause of land subsidence is believed to be the National Thermal Power Corporation’s Tapovan Vishnugad Hydro Power Project. It is a 520MW run-of-river project being constructed on Dhauliganga River
Joshimath is a hilly town located on the Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway (NH-7) in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
It is not situated on the main rock, but rather on a layer of stone and sand, according to the 1976 Mishra Committee study. It is situated on a historic landslide.
It falls in high-risk seismic Zone-V and is drained by running streams with a high gradient (slope) from Vishnu Prayag, a confluence of the Dhauliganga and the Alaknanda rivers.
It is home to one of the four cardinal maths or monasteries established by Adi Shankara – Sringeri in Karnataka, Dwarka in Gujarat, Puri in Odisha and Joshimath near Badrinath in Uttarakhand.
November 22, 2023 Lucy Mission