Two more hotels were leaning dangerously towards each other on Sunday, while wide cracks appeared near the Auli ropeway and in other areas of landslide-hit Joshimath.
A bulletin from the Disaster Management Authority said the number of houses that had developed cracks has now risen to 826, of which 165 are in “vulnerable zones”. So far 233 families have been shifted to temporary relief centres.
The process of demolishing the two adjacent hotels, Malari Inn and Mount View, which had been declared unsafe, was still underway. About 100 meters away from the site, two more hotels – Snow Crest and Comet – are leaning dangerously towards each other and have been evacuated as a precaution.
Snow Crest’s owner’s daughter Pooja Prajapati said, “Earlier the difference between the two hotels was about four feet, but now it has reduced to just a few inches and their roofs are almost touching each other.”
Extensive cracks have appeared near the Joshimath-Auli ropeway, whose operations were suspended a week ago after the land subsidence increased.
Considered to be one of the largest in Asia, the 4.5 km ropeway connects Joshimath at 6000 feet to the skiing destination of Auli at 9000 feet.
Ropeway engineer Dinesh Bhatt said a crack about four inches wide and 20 feet long has appeared near the walls in the ropeway complex.
A hotel owner in Singdhar ward said that the cracks widened further in the area on Saturday night.
In JP Colony of Marwari area of the town, a few days ago, after a temporary decline, the flow of water had increased due to the bursting of a suspected underground drain. Muddy water has been seeping down from it continuously since January 2 but experts are not sure about its origin.
Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha said that the speed of leakage of fluctuating water in the area is being continuously monitored.
The water flow has increased from 190 liters per minute (LPM) to 240 LPM. It was reduced from 550 LPM initially to 190 LPM on 13 January.
Many houses were damaged to varying degrees in the landslide areas, while water from the aquifer continued to flow down initially with great force.
According to the Disaster Management Authority, 17 more affected families were shifted to temporary relief centers in Joshimath on Sunday. The total number of families shifted to temporary relief centers is now 233.
So far an amount of Rs 249.27 lakh has been distributed among the affected families as interim assistance.
They have also been provided with ration kits, blankets, food, daily use kits, heaters and blowers.
Amid widespread concern over the fate of the sinking city, the Supreme Court will on Monday hear a plea seeking the court’s intervention to declare the crisis in Joshimath a national disaster.
According to the January 16 cause list uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala will hear the petition filed by Swami Avimukteshwarananda Saraswati.
Several government institutions, including ISRO, have been directed by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Uttarakhand government not to interact with the media or share information on social media on the situation in Joshimath without prior permission.
The directive came after satellite images released by the Indian Space Research Organization showed a rapid rate of subsidence in Joshimath between December 27 and January 8, raising concern over the situation, even as Uttarakhand minister Dhan Singh Rawat On Saturday said that ISRO’s images were taken back.
Meanwhile, Bhuvan Uniyal, a former Badrinath temple official, said that to save the city from the menace of landslides, locals on Sunday offered special prayers at the Narasimha temple in Joshimath.
Uniyal said that the local people performed a yagya at the temple and prayed to get the city out of the current crisis.
Rawal or the head priest of the famous Badrinath temple, Ishwarprasad Namboodiri also urged the authorities to stop projects that harm nature and the people of the hill town.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)