DEHRADUN: Fear has gripped Joshimath again around one-and-a-half months after many houses developed cracks following the land submergence disaster. An experts’ team has revealed that there are cracks as wide as 2 feet and as long as half a kilometre in the town, an important destination on way to the Badrinath Dham.
Cracks have been widening ever since they became visible in the town this year. A team of four experts from Shri Dev Suman Uttarakhand University after conducting a survey has found new cracks in many areas.
Ved Prakash, a resident of Main Bazar, told this newspaper that there was a 300-meter-long crack from tower number one of the ropeway to the Mount View Hotel. The rift that occurred on February 2 is now gradually increasing. Similarly, on Wednesday, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) employees worked to level the highway in the area just below the petrol pump. The highway had collapsed for about two feet near the BRO office, where stones and mud were being filled.
The district administration filled the cracks in the farm barn by adding soil, but in the last four-five days, new cracks have surfaced. The cracks are being seen in residential buildings and farms at Manohar Bagh, Singh Dhar ward and several other places in the city. In many places, cracks have become deep pits. In the town, people affected by these cracks have been agitating for about two months. Many of them are leaving their homes and staying in relief camps.
NDRF to combat forest fires
As the Uttarakhand forest department is ill-equipped to contain forest fires, the Centre has entrusted the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with the responsibility to deal with such situations. As much as 71 per cent of the total geographical area of Uttarakhand is covered with forests. In Assam, this area is 34.21 per cent and in Andhra Pradesh, 18.28 per cent. Every year in these states, forest wealth worth crores of rupees is destroyed due to fire incidents. Speaking to The New Indian Express about the damage caused by fires every year, Chief Wildlife Warden Sameer Sinha said the NDRF deployment will help in creating a near-foolproof system to save the forest wealth. The 15th Battalion of the NDRF will operate in Uttarakhand, the First Battalion will be deployed in Andhra Pradesh and the 10th Battalion in Assam, official sources said.