Joshimath is caving in and many more towns in Uttarakhand could go this way. Who is to blame?

itigate restoration efforts. What has happened in Joshimath and is likely to be repeated elsewhere in the state and even in the neighboring Himachal Pradesh is not natural. It is  e state and even in the neighboring Himachal Prsheer greed and exploitation of nature to the hilt which has resulted in the havoc in the hiThe roads are caving in forcing the authorities to evacuate the people living there. The administration has declared all nine municipal wards as “disaster-affected” and “unsafe for living” under the Disaster Management Act. Many expert teams have been dispatched to the town to study the situation. This includes experts from the National Disaster Management Authority, IIT Roorkee, the Geological Survey of India, and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology inspecting the area for assessing the gravity of the situation. Many measures are under consideration for damage control. Repair and retrofitting strategy are most likely to be adopted to restore the partially damaged houses but that is not a permanent solution as further land subsidence in the area can md have to be investigated but one thing is for sure it has to do with the several dams being constructed in the vicinity especially the one in Vishnugad. These dams have divday is a town sitting on a hollow tunnel which can cause the whole town to go down. There could be many reasons or combinations of them which led to the Joshimath disaster including improper drainage systems, consarning successive governments against allowing construction activity. But no one pays heed to their good advice, the profit motives and so-called ‘development’ takes precedence and environmental concerns take a backseat. What has happened in Joshimath wouluate checks, and deforestation soil erosion because of the changing course of the Alaknanda River, however, is the major one. The government has rightly stopped the Tapovan  povan ather Char Dham road between Helang and Marwari and also the NTPC’s Tapovan f Joshimath where large cracks have appeared in houses and land subsidence is playing havoc with the lives of the residents. More than 600 houses have cracks and many more are on the verge of becoming uninhabitable. on the verge of becoming uninhabitable. Vishnugad Hydro Project. Soon this issue is going to be a political slugfest and the blame game will begin. The real issue would be lost in the din and we shall wait for the next disaster..ll wait for the next disaster.ryIv,ÿv.ÿw,i