Joshimath is Sinking! Huge Cracks Show Up in Roads & Walls, 600 Families to be Evacuated

Joshimath, a tiny town in Uttarakhand that was built on the site of a historic landslide, is situated in the foothills of the Himalayas and has had rapid growth in both development and population in recent years.

Joshimath is generating news for the wrong reason: it is sinking. Joshimath is the winter residence of Lord Badrinath, a staging area for troops stationed along the Sino-Indian border, and a kind of base camp for Himalayan expeditions.

Residents are protesting and expressing worry over the town's foundation sinking. Homes have developed cracks, according to the locals, who claim they are being forced to build support structures to prevent their homes from collapsing under their weight. There are cracks in more than 500 homes in the area.

Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, has directed that 600 residents who live in homes with large cracks be evacuated immediately and is scheduled to visit the "sinking" Joshimath town in the state's northeast. Although the land has been "sinking" during the previous year as a result of land subsidence, an official said that the issue has gotten worse over the last fortnight.

"Saving lives is our top concern.” After monitoring the situation in the town with officials via video conference, Dhami informed reporters in Dehradun that authorities had been instructed to relocate around 600 residents living in endangered homes in Joshimath to safe areas.

At 6,000 feet in elevation, the city in Uttarakhand's Chamoli region serves as a major route used by travelers heading to Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib. It is located in seismic Zone V with a high risk. Concerns over the future of Joshimath, which according to the 2011 census is home to about 3,800 households, increased when the city's roadways and structures began to break as a result of ground subsidence.