‘What to leave behind’: Panic grips Joshimath residents

Panic coursed through the holy town of Joshimath on Monday as harried residents scrambled to collect their belongings and evacuate their cracked and sunken homes, the result of alarming levels of land subsidence that has affected close to 678 houses and left neighbourhoods on the brink of collapse.

The town of over 20,000 people saw streets packed with commercial vehicles loaded with belongings from evacuated houses as authorities stepped up relief and rescue efforts to forestall any loss of life. The rushed evacuation left many residents emotional.

Ruhi Devi, a resident of Singh Dhar ward, wept bitterly as she loaded her household items into a Mahindra Bolero pick up truck, making many reluctant trips between the four-wheeler, and her double-storey house, large cracks running through its walls, a large red X marked in front signalling its condemned status.

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”I didn’t think a day like this would come when we would have to leave our house for years. I don’t know what to leave behind. They (the authorities) are taking us to a relief camp. I don’t know for long we will be kept there,” said Devi, a homemaker. Her husband, Ram Bahadur, owns a grocery shop in the main market. The couple has a son and a daughter.

Officials said they were trying to impress the urgency and importance of the situation to residents. At least 678 building, as of last count on Monday, have developed cracks, a phenomenon experts blame on the geographical factors and indiscriminate construction and development projects devastating the fragile ecosystem. The authorities conducted a survey to determine which buildings were dangerous.

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“We have shifted over 30 families from the Singh Dhar ward to safer places. Once other houses are declared unfit for living on the basis of assessment, they will be shifted too,” said Sudarshan Singh Rawat, executive engineer of the public works department, Karnprayag, who has been appointed as the sector official of Singh Dhar ward, said,

“We have shifted over 30 families from the Singh Dhar ward to safer places. Once other houses are declared unfit for living on the basis of assessment, they will be shifted too,” he said.

In all, officials said 81 families/people were temporarily shifted to different relief camps.

”Sometimes, we have to convince people to shift who are not ready to leave their house, saying they have spent their hard-earned money on it and lived there for years. We said that saving lives should be the priority and the government would arrange everything for them,” Rawat added.

Eight units of the state disaster relief force (SDRF) were deployed in the town, said SDRF commandant Manikant Mishra. A similar survey was underway in all nine wards of Chamoli, said the Chamoli district administration.

But many residents were angry. Harish, who also lives in the Singh Dhar ward and uses only his first name, said, “The administration has drawn a big X symbol with red paint on our house. They say it’s unsafe to live now. We have been packing our belongings to shift to a hotel where our family will be put up. I spent my everything on building this house. Just tell me who is responsible for its destruction.”

Sarita Uniyal, a resident of Manohar Bagh, echoed him. “Until yesterday, I thought we wouldn’t be asked to leave our house. But…..now we have also been told to vacate the house and take shelter in government relief camps since cracks that have appeared in our house are getting wider with each passing day.”

“I don’t know for how long we will have to stay at relief camps and if we would be able to return to our house. If rehabilitated, we will lose our identity that was connected to the town,” he said.