Three months after cracks, Joshimath moves on, but many families still stuck

“Our eight-room house was declared completely unsafe. This room is barely big enough for all of us, so we rented a small space in a nearby village to store our belongings. We received Rs 40 lakh as compensation for our house. Given the current rates, I don’t think we will be able to build a house like our old one. Now that we have received the compensation, I’m sure we will be asked to move out soon. I don’t know what we will do next,” said Anshu.

Anjali Rawat (right) and Usha Devi are seen in the former’s temporary one-room accommodation in a building in Joshimath’s Nagar Palika compound. The Nagar Palika has housed seven of the affected families here since January. (Express photo by Avaneesh Mishra)

With the government announcing the commencement of the Char Dham yatra from April 22, Joshimath appears to be on the mend. However, a cloud of uncertainty still hovers over the future of the 296 currently displaced families due to delay in the expert committee report. The report, which is yet to be compiled by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), will clear the status of safe and unsafe locations in Joshimath and also help the government determine the rate of land compensation. Uttarakhand Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Secretary Ranjit Sinha said the report is expected by the end of April.

Cracks had appeared on 868 structures across the town’s nine wards, while 181 structures were declared as falling in the unsafe zone. Anshu’s house is situated below the now-demolished Hotel Mount View. She lived there with her entire family, including her nine-month-old daughter, brother-in-law, father-in-law and mother-in-law. She is also worried since her husband, a taxi driver, has barely found work since January.

“Hardly any tourists visited Auli this year due to the unprecedented lack of snow. So he didn’t find much work. I hope he gets work during the yatra season,” she hoped.

Nagar Palika president Shailendra Panwar said seven affected families have been housed in as many rooms in a two-storey building in the compound. On the ground floor of this building lies a community centre, which is rented out for weddings and other functions, while the rooms are usually booked to put up guests.

The room allotted to Anshu’s family has two beds, a gas stove, a metal almirah and several cardboard boxes. The other rooms in the building are more or less similar. In one of the other rooms, a family of five has been sharing space with some furniture, a television, a gas stove and an almirah. They said they had managed to get some of their belongings along when they left their damaged house. However, there is hardly any space left to walk in the room.

Anjali Rawat (30), her husband and son (8) are also housed in the Nagar Palika building. For nearly a week after they moved in, they ate what was prepared in the community centre. But the food did not suit her son, said Anjali, so she set up a small kitchen in the room itself.

(From left) Anshu Rawat, Anjali, Usha and another woman affected due to land subsidence in Joshimath have been allotted single rooms each in a two-storey building in the Nagar Palika compound. (Express photo by Avaneesh Mishra)

“We had to leave our 10-room house in January because large cracks had started appearing on the floor and the walls. We ran a small restaurant in the market. That too was declared unsafe. We don’t have a home or a source of income. We got Rs 1.5 lakh as compensation — Rs 1 lakh as advance on the total compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the house and Rs 50,000 as relocation charges. How will we build a decent house with just Rs 20 lakh? Our house was built in 2015-16. The cost of building materials is much higher now,” said Anjali, as she prepared tea on the stove kept in one corner of the room.

Her neighbour Usha Devi (38) said eight families from her area had left their houses in January. While most are living in accommodations arranged by the Nagar Palika, many have rented houses to either stay or store their belongings. Usha claimed that homeowners in safe zones had hiked the rent many times over due to the sudden and sharp increase in demand.

To help affected families, the administration has built temporary houses in Dhak village, around 11 km from Joshimath. As of now, 15 structures are almost complete. Built using metal beams for support, the walls of these houses are made of fibre-reinforced plastic filled with glass wool. Of the 296 currently displaced families, 163 families (comprising 631 persons) moved to Nagar Palika relief shelters, while 133 (comprising 364 persons) moved in with relatives.

Stating that the administration plans to build 90 such structures, Joshimath Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Kumkum Joshi said, “As of now, we are making these in Dhak village. Once we get reports of more places, we will build more structures. We have also built three makeshift structures in Joshimath for affected families to get an idea about these accommodations.”

However, most affected families are reluctant to shift to Dhak even temporarily.

A manager at a Joshimath-based hotel explained, “The main issue with shifting to Dhak is the distance from Joshimath. Most affected families are employed in town and cannot afford to travel back and forth daily.”

Built using metal beams for support, the walls of these temporary houses are made of fibre-reinforced plastic filled with glass wool. (Express photo by Avaneesh Mishra)

On February 15, the Uttarakhand Cabinet had approved a proposal on compensation and permanent displacement of land and buildings of disaster-affected families in Joshimath. Under this policy, 39 families have received a compensation of Rs 10.26 crore so far. In addition, 324 families have been provided Rs 1 lakh each as advance compensation and 357 families Rs 50,000 as relocation allowance.

Talking about the compensation slabs, Joshi explained, “Most families have opted for one-time monetary settlement. Their choices are based on their socio-demographic profile. For example, those who are not from Joshimath or have homes in other villages or whose livelihoods are not directly connected to the town have opted for one-time settlement. Families with strong roots in Joshimath are still hesitant. They agreed to take compensation for their houses, but have not yet agreed to take money for their land. There is a possibility that their hesitation stems from the fact that they do not know the location of this land. Once the location is finalised, more families should make a decision.”

On January 17, the Centre had issued a timeline — between three weeks and two months — for eight technical and scientific institutions to make available the study reports on Joshimath. Last week, Sinha said technical institutions have submitted their preliminary reports to the NDMA. He said the final report will be released after a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) by joint teams of the NDMA, the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) and the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA).

Ahead of the Char Dham yatra, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had last week sought to assuage tourist concerns by asserting that Auli and Joshimath, which falls in the high-risk seismic Zone V, were “completely safe and ready” for the annual pilgrimage. He said the number of pilgrims this year is expected to surpass last year’s figures. Dhami added that 11.30 lakh tourists had already registered for the annual yatra.

Joshimath, which is nestled towards the bottom of the Auli slope, is a popular destination for tourists visiting Badrinath temple, which is around 45 km from Joshimath. Hotels in Joshimath, which were shut over fears of developing more cracks or had been booked by the administration to house relief and survey team officials or affected families, are eagerly awaiting tourists. Local businesses which suffered tremendously due to land subsidence and lack of snow in Auli have also pinned their hopes on the Badrinath yatra, which starts from April 27.

Despite these developments, some locals have refused to leave their unsafe houses. In fact, a few have even started to restore their unsafe residences, in violation of the ban on construction work in and around the town.

The emotional owner of one such house on Joshimath-Auli Road cried, “I do not want to go anywhere. I have spent my life’s savings on this house. I work in Joshimath. How can I leave everything and shift somewhere else? I do not want compensation for my house. If the government helps me restore the house, fine. If not, I will do it on my own…. This is where I have lived all my life. And if God wants, this is where I will die.”