Joshimath Sinking: What The 'Secret' Reports Say About Reason Behind Crisis

The reports by eight central technical and scientific institutions that studied the unprecedented land subsidence phenomenon in the Joshimath town of Uttarakhand have been made available to the public.

Reports by 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, National Institute of Hydrology, and IIT Roorkee were made public on the order of the Uttarakhand High Court which said that there was no reason to keep it a secret.

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What are the worst affected areas?

The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), a research laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in its report, said that subsidence was observed in the middle and western side of the town, although isolated subsidence was observed throughout the Joshimath areas.

The report said that some regions of the town "sunk vertically by over 3 feet and moved by 1.4 feet".

"Maximum horizontal displacement along the fissures was observed in Sunil, Manohar Bagh and Singhdhar with displacement as high as 45cm (1.4ft). Vertical displacement (sinking) as high as 110-110cm (3.6ft) was witnessed in Singhdhar and Marwari," the report said.

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How many houses have been damaged

Joshimath town is situated on Vaikrita groups of rocks overlain by morainic deposits composed of irregular boulders and clay of varying thicknesses, which are less cohesive and susceptible to slow subsidence and landslide subsidence, the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) said.

It found that out of 2,364 buildings in Joshimath, 20 per cent of houses are "unusable", 42 per cent are under "further assessment", 37 per cent are "usable", and one per cent of them "need to be demolished".

How water played a role in the crisis

The National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), which studied the water seepage point in the Jaypee colony area of Joshimath from where the water kept flowing with great force for days, causing concern among authorities, said it was an eruption caused by blockage of sub-surface channels.

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"A temporary storage was created due to blockage of sub-surface channels which eventually burst from the weak point of strata when the hydrostatic pressure of stored water exceeded the soil-water bearing capacity of the area," the NIH report said.

"Safe disposal of water coming from the upper reaches and waste of town should be top priority," the NIH said in one of its recommendations.

Why construction must be stopped

The Central Ground Water Board suggested that trenches along with the retention wall may be constructed at different topographic levels so that groundwater pressure may be dissipated and cracks do not appear in future.

It also recommended that construction activities in spring zone area should be immediately stopped.

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What caused the cracks

The Indian Institute of Remote Sensing said, "Subsidence in this region may be due to toe-cutting phenomenon, slope instability as a result of seepage of local drainage water in the soil, terrain and edaphic characteristics, loose and unconsolidated moraine materials of the slope (due to old landslide) and flash flood events in and around the area in the recent past."

"This has resulted in development of cracks in the ground as well as houses in Joshimath...," it said.

The GSI said it is strongly advised to carry out ground-based terrestrial-monitoring in different parts of Joshimath.

"The main reason for the subsidence appears to be internal erosion caused by the subsurface drainage, which may be due to infiltration of rainwater/melting of ice/wastewater discharge from household and hotels. Though subsidence is a continuous phenomenon, it can be minimized by controlling infiltration of water, which helps in minimizing internal erosion," the IIT-Roorkee said in its report.

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Why the report was made public

The reports of the studies that were carried out in January this year were submitted to the National Disaster Management Authority the same month.

But it was kept a secret and was submitted to the High Court in a sealed cover only last week.

The Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the citizens' movement to rehabilitate those affected, had approached the court to make the report public.

"We see no reason that the State should keep the reports prepared by the experts secret and should not disclose the same to the public at large," a high court division bench comprising Chief Justice Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Alok Kumar Verma said.

"In fact, circulation of the said reports would provide vital information to the public, and the public would have confidence in them that the State is serious about dealing with the situation," the court said.

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