Uttarakhand: Panic grips Chamoli village after cracks appear

Chai (Chamoli) [India], January 15 (ANI): After land subsidence in the Joshimath area of Uttarakhand's Chamoli, cracks have also started to appear in houses in Sharana Chai village of Uttarakhand's Chamoli district.
Multiple cracks appeared on houses on Sunday. "Natural calamities like cloud bursts occur more often," Dalip Singh Pawar, one of the residents, said while talking to ANI.
"In case of low magnitude earthquake whole village will be severely affected," said another resident.
"Today, Joshimath is on the brink of collapse, tomorrow the whole of Uttarakhand will be destroyed," he added.
Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha on Sunday inspected the landslide-affected areas in Uttarakhand's Joshimath and said that there has been an uptick in the number of cracks, but no new areas have faced damages.
The Secretary inspected areas including Auli Ropeway, Manohar Bagh, Shankaracharya Math, JP Colony along with geologists and senior officials.
Speaking to ANI, Sinha said that the teams are conducting tests to ascertain if there is any particular pattern of developing cracks.
"Relief and rescue operations are being conducted. There has been an uptick in the number of cracks in some places. Cracks haven't developed in new areas. There is a minor increase in the cracks of approx 1 mm but we are monitoring them. We are also finding a pattern so that in the future there is no damage. All teams are conducting tests whether there is any pattern developing of the cracks. After the tests, we will take action based on it. The cracks have increased, but there is nothing to worry about," he said.
"The Central and state governments are making combined efforts during this period. Our all teams have reached here for investigation & now their research will tell what is the reason behind it. After that action will be taken on the same accordingly," Sinha added.
He informed that the geophysical study of the affected area is being done by the NGRI Hyderabad. NGRI is studying the underground water channel. After the study, the geophysical and hydrological maps will also be made available by NGRI. These maps will be useful for Joshimath's drainage plan and stabilisation plan. (ANI)