Perspective : The ‘HimIn this episode of the Perspective Prog. Based on ‘The Himalayan Crisis’. Several roads and over 600 houses in Joshimath in Uttarakhand, the gateway town to the Badrinath temple have developed cracks over the past few weeks, causing panic and protests among the local population. While a high level meeting of officials from Centre, state govt and agencies like NDMA, GIS and NIH took stock of the situation on Sunday, the Supreme Court declined an urgent hearing on a plea relating to the incident. Based on recommendations by an expert panel tasked by the centre to assess the sinking of the ground surface in Joshimath, the authorities began demolition process of two hotels. Affected families are also being provided shelter by the state govt. According to experts, Joshimath city has been built on an ancient landslide material — meaning it rests on a deposit of sand and stone, not rock, which doesn’t have high load-bearing capacity. This makes the area extremely vulnerable to ever-burgeoning infrastructure and population. Halayan’ Crisis |
