Expert On Reasons Behind "Sinking" Of Uttarakhand Town
NDTV
Joshimath is the gateway to Badrinath, Hemkund Sahib, and skiing destination Auli haphazard construction activities have been going on in the area for a long time.
A variety of factors both anthropogenic and natural have led to the subsidence of Joshimath, director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology Kalachand Sain said on Friday.
The factors are not recent, they have built up over a long period of time, he said.
"The three principal factors are Joshimath's vulnerable foundations as it was developed on the debris of a landslide triggered by an earthquake more than a century ago, its location in seismic zone V which is more prone to earthquakes besides gradual weathering and water percolation which reduce the cohesive strength of the rocks over time," Mr Sain told PTI.
"Atkins had first written about Joshimath's location on landslide debris in the Himalayan Gazetteer in 1886. Even the Mishra Committee in its report in 1976 had written about its location on an old subsidence zone," he said.
