HIMALAYAN TOWN, JOSHIMATH ATTRACTING MANY DEVOTEES EVERY YEAR
Himalaya town, Joshimath in northern Uttrakhand, hundreds of people were escaped from their homes by Indian authorities as huge cracks have been occurred in many buildings in the area popular with pilgrims due to shifting soil.
Above sea level about 1,890 meters (6,200 feet) Joshimath is a gateway to Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib, which is a key for Hindu and Sikh pilgrimage sites situated in Himalayas, grabs tens of thousands of devotees every year.
Joshimath a town of almost 25,000 people, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and border security forces have been rushed there to analyze the situation and help people with the evacuation.
In Joshimath more than in 600 houses the cracks have been reported in recent weeks, which leads the authorities to shift the residents to safer locations, including hotels and guesthouses, Himanshu Khurana a government official said.
“Team of scientists from different institutes have been trying to know the cause and solution to deal with the situation, the evacuation process is under way,” said Khurana, the district magistrate of Chamoli district, where Joshimath is located.
The cause of the apparent subsidence was unclear. Building of major road have been blame by the residents for betterment of religious sites and the Chinese border area, including the building of tunnels of nearby hydroelectric protect.
Officials have temporarily halted the construction of Char Dham all-weather road, a flagship enterprise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to connect various Hindu pilgrimage sites, as well as a project to set up trolleys pulled by ropes to carry pilgrims and tourists in nearby Auli town and hydropower stations.
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