Joshimath: Families live in fear as cracks at homes give them sleepless nights

64-year-old Pushma Verma is unable to sleep in peace as her house in Singh Dhar ward of Joshimath town is yet to declared “unsafe” by the authorities amid the growing land subsidence problem.

“I keep looking at the cracks in my house throughout the night as I fear they are growing bigger. Sometimes I even imagine they are widening. I hardly get sleep and remain tense fearing our house may fall anytime. This constant fear is worse than actual falling I think”, she says.

She wants to shift to relief camps than to live in continuous fear.

“It’s better to shift to relief camps rather than staying in the damaged house. The cracks give me sleepless nights. My blood pressure shoots up looking at the cracks in walls”, she said.

She added, “We are a family of five. My husband died long ago. Ever since the cracks started appearing in my house, I sent my two sons, daughter-in-law and granddaughter to Dehradun to a relative’s house. I didn’t want to put their life in danger.”

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“Even the weather is cloudy and it can rain anytime resulting in escalation of the situation,” she said.

Even though the authorities have so far shifted 131 families from “danger zone to safer locations, those living in houses yet to be declared unsafe are going through mental trauma in land subsidence-affected Joshimath town of Chamoli district.

Either the cracks in their houses are minor, or the survey team made a “wrong assessment” about the possibility of danger, the families said.

Jagdish Negi, another resident of Singh Dhar ward whose house is below the Marwari hotel, said, “Our house has minor cracks, but they are getting wider. I have a five-month-old daughter. We can’t sleep these days. We should be shifted to a safer location without loss of any time.”

Harish Negi, another resident of the same area, said, “Cracks had started appearing in my house on the intervening night of January 2 and 3 and they are growing wider with each passing day. It’s really unsafe to live here with kids. On January 10, a survey team came to assess the damage but didn’t declare our house unsafe. Can’t they see the cracks, they are too big to ignore. We are sitting on a time bomb. In this hour of tragedy, the administration should react proactively and make the right judgment about the possibility of danger.”

Next to his house lives Bhawan Singh Rana, who owns a grocery shop in the main market.

Rana’s three-story house was yet to be declared ‘unsafe’ by the authorities until Wednesday morning.

He, however, said, “A survey team came for assessment of damages and declared our house safe for living. We requested them to shift to safer locations but they said we can live in their house for now.”

“Our tenants have started packing bags and would leave anytime soon after cracks appeared in the upper floors of our house,” he said.

Rana added, “We can’t sleep at the night. Our house can fall anytime. Are the authorities waiting for a big tragedy and not concerned about our lives?”

Sudarshan Singh, an official from PWD who is involved in survey of the affected areas, said, “We are constantly monitoring the situation. If cracks in any house get wider, they take the required action immediately.”

The Chamoli district administration earlier this week had divided the land subsidence affected Joshimath town into three zones on the basis of possible danger – ‘Danger’, ‘Buffer’ and ‘Safe’.

“Houses with major damages and unsafe for living have been put in ‘Danger zone’. Houses in ‘Buffer Zone’ are endangered and then third is ‘Safe’ where in houses are completely safe for living,” Chamoli additional district magistrate Abhishek Tripathi had said.

According to the bulletin issued by the state government on Wednesday evening, 723 houses have developed cracks in Joshimath including 86 houses which have been declared unsafe for living. So far 145 families have been shifted to safer locations, including 18 on Wednesday.