Separate studies conducted by eight premier Institutions of India to know the cause of land subsidence in Joshimath town of Uttarakhand attributed to the seismic activities, construction loopholes, population pressure, poor drainage system among others as ‘likely’ reason for the sinking of the Himalayan town. With every study conducted with a different approach, these reports largely recreated the sensitivity of the area but nothing concrete has come out on what exactly went wrong last January, say experts.
The eight institutions — the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), the Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT-Roorkee), the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), the Geological Survey of India (GSI), the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) — were given the mandate to identify the causes of land subsidence by the government. The reports of these institutions were submitted earlier this year but they were made public only after the Uttarakhand High Court last week questioned the State for hiding them.
In its report, the CBRI stated that the Joshimath town has 44%, 42%, 14% of masonry, RCC and other (traditional, hybrid) construction typologies among which 99% are non-engineered — means they are not complying with the National Building Code of India 2016 provisions.
