Joshimath has been the gateway of various popular pilgrimage sites from Badrinath to Hemkund Sahib. Lately, the town located in the high-risk seismic Zone-V has been under the grip of land subsidence. Joshimath has been declared a land subsidence hit zone by the Uttarakhand government.
Now an ISRO report has confirmed that the Uttarakhand city sank by about 5.4 centimetres in just 12 days. The images taken by the National Remote Sensing Center of ISRO showed that the town sank by about 5.4 centimetres from December 27 to January 8, news agency PTI reported. According to the report, the massive soil sinking was triggered by a sudden subsidence that occurred on January 2, 2022 in the city.
According to the report, the soil shifted rapidly in the central region of Joshimath, which is near an Army helipad and a temple. The report stated that the crown of the subsidence was at a height of around 2,180 metres.
The sinking rate was much lower in the last few months, Cartosat-2S Satellite further found. For April to November, it was 9 cm.
Massive cracks were noticed in buildings and roads in the mountainous town on January 2. Around 4,000 people have been moved to relief camps to date after a satellite survey. Besides hotels and business establishments, around 700 homes are still in danger, the Uttarakhand government said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that the government would provide financial assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh to each family who was relocated. He further said that a central committee is still working on the full and final compensation rates.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the situation in the affected areas. He was accompanied by other ministers and officials like Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, RK Singh, Bhupendra Yadav and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and senior government officials at his home.