Govt apathy to repeated warnings root cause of Joshimath crisis, says Bhatt

Govt apathy to repeated warnings root cause of Joshimath crisis Chandi Prasad Bhatt Geological factors apart the failure of successive governments to act on the warnings by experts about possible hazards in Joshimath and adjoining areas has emerged as a major reason behind the land subsidence crisis that has now gripped the town environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt said on MondayYet another effort has been made by the state government for a scientific study with the help of satellite imagery of the crisis in the sinking town Bhatt who is associated with the Chipko Movement saidHowever a detailed zonation mapping of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh warning of the lurking dangers in Joshimath had been submitted to the state government more than two decades ago he saidThe study carried out using remote sensing and Geographic Information System GIS by around twelve leading scientific organisations of the country including the National Remote Sensing Agency NRSA had been submitted to the state government way back in 2001 he saidThe mapping of the area covering the entire Char Dham and Mansarovar yatra routes including Joshimath had also been submitted to the district administrations of Dehradun Tehri Uttarkashi Pauri Rudraprayag Pithoragarh Nainital and Chamoli at that timeIn this zonation mapping report 12454 sq km area of Joshimath had been divided into six parts in accordance with their susceptibility to landslides Bhatt saidOver 99 per cent of the mapped area had been shown as landslideprone in varying degrees he said adding 39 per cent of the area was identified as a highrisk zone 28 per cent as a moderaterisk zone and 29 per cent as a lowrisk zone and the rest in the lowestAlso read Joshimath declared landslidesubsidence zone over 60 families evacuated OfficialSubsequently a daylong meeting was also held between senior administrative officials experts peoples representatives and social workers in Dehradun over the study in which the district magistrates concerned had agreed to take the required safety measures in light of the studyHowever nothing was done and the state government had to face a lot of criticism for not acting on the study in the wake of the 2013 Kedarnath disaster the Himalayan tsunami which killed more than four thousand people Bhatt a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Padma Bhushan and Gandhi Peace award saidFailure of successive governments to act on expert warnings seems to be at the root of the Joshimath crisis he saidOne study after another would not help until the governments begin to act on what they were recommended the nonagenarian on whose request to the state government the then ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan constituted a group of organisations headed by NRSA to do zonation mapping of the regionBhatt who was part of various discussions held with the government on the vulnerability of the region to disasters as an advisor said Once again the problem is being ignored in the name of conducting studiesThe NRSAs landslide hazard zonation mapping submitted in 2001 and the 1976 report of the Mishra Committee of which I too was a part contain enough suggestions about the safety measures to be adopted to save towns like Joshimath and their residents he saidWhat is needed is action not just another study Bhatt saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever