While the land subsidence in Joshimath is a disaster for those who cannot get compensation for their damaged houses because of lack of documents, for many others it is a loss of livelihood.
Lalu shudders as he recalls the night his house started falling apart.
“It was raining heavily that night. We felt a tremor and suddenly our room just caved in,” said Lalu, 56, a resident of Joshimath town in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
He is recalling the nightmare that began on 2 January, when several buildings in the area developed cracks or collapsed. Joshimath was sinking.
Two months on, a disaster of a different kind is playing out for Lalu and other Joshimath residents.
“When cracks first appeared in December last year, we thought it was a minor crack. But then it spread throughout the house,” said Lalu.
His home is in the Singhdhar ward, which reported the maximum land subsidence in Joshimath. Now his family lives in a nearby hotel that has been converted into a temporary shelter, accommodating 15 families that have lost their home.
As per a bulletin issued by Chamoli district officials on 15 February, 181 houses in nine wards of Joshimath were declared unsafe, and 863 buildings in the ward have visible cracks.
The Uttarakhand government has announced an interim relief of Rs 1,50,000 to each affected family. Of this, Rs 50,000 is for shifting the household goods while Rs 1,00,000 is the interim disaster relief fund.
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But Lalu will not get this benefit because he does not have any documents for his house.
“My mother built this house. I’ve spent my whole life here and the officials say I won’t get anything because I don’t have papers,” said Lalu. “Nobody said anything in the last 50 years, now they want proof.”
Lalu, who works as a watchman at the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam ropeway between Joshimath and the ski resort town of Auli, has visited the tehsil office several times regarding the documents but found no help so far.
“I don’t even have the money to shift my belongings,” he said.
A walk in the town shows several collapsed houses and many others that have been marked red by the district authorities to announce their fragile state.
The house and shop of Kuldeep Singh Rawat, a 44-year-old shopkeeper, have also been labelled as unsafe.
Many believe the houses are beyond salvaging.
“Land subsidence has happened in the entire Dhauli Ganga Joshimath valley. Hundreds of villages are in danger and there is no way to save it,” said S P Sati, Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Forestry College, Ranichauri.
Rawat’s family of four stays in the damaged house, which is around 100 years old, during the day and returns to the shelter at night. He too does not have any documents.
“I don’t know what will happen to us. There is complete panic here. I am unable to claim the land on which I’ve lived all my life,” he said.
Joshimath tehsildar Ravi Shah said, “In most cases, people have built houses on government land, so they will not get compensation for the land. But their house will be valued and they will be compensated accordingly.”
“Those who don’t have the papers have been given time. And they’ve been given Rs 50,000,” he added.
According to the government data, 277 families have been compensated until 15 February.
But neither Lalu nor Rawat has received any compensation so far.
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“Many people don’t have land papers. We have demanded a survey to find out the number of such families, and the transfer of land to their names. But the administration is lax,” said Atul Sati, convenor of Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, an activist group.
“One of the reasons for the absence of land papers is that no land settlement was done in the last 50-60 years,” Sati said.
Vivek , 24, a migrant labour from Nepal is among a group of men waiting for daily wage jobs near a taxi stand in Joshimath.
“This is the fifth continuous day without a job. There is no work anywhere,” said Vivek.
All the construction work in the municipality, including NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugarh Electric Water Project and BRO’s Helen Bypass, was stopped on 5 January due to the land subsidence.
Vivek is one of the hundreds of labourers who have lost their livelihood.
“The (rented) house where I live also has cracks but where will we go? Some of my friends who also worked as labourers have returned to Nepal,” said Vivek.
“We used to earn Rs 15,000-20,000 every month, but now there is nothing,” said Vivek’s friend Rakesh, who also hails from Nepal.
Joshimath is the gateway to tourist places like Badrinath and the Valley of Flowers, helping people in 88 villages earn their livelihood.
Baisakhi Rawat, 51, a resident of Shrigram Merak, 7 km from Joshimath, sells vegetables and dairy products in Joshimath regularly. Since the subsidence, her earnings have dipped really low.
“Joshimath is our main market. We sell our goods and buy our rations here. If Joshimath can’t be saved then what will happen to us?” said Baishakhi. “My 7-member family is dependent on agriculture. We don’t have any other jobs. If we don’t sell here we will die of hunger.”
Same is the case with Lakshmi Rawat, 38, of Parsari village, the sole breadwinner in her family.
“Earlier, we used to earn Rs 8,000-10,000 per month comfortably, but I can’t sell my vegetables or dairy products now,” said Lakshmi.
“There are cracks in houses even in my village but we have lost our livelihood to Joshimath’s fissures. Our hope is sinking. Just like the town.”
The lead image shows one of the damaged houses in Joshimath (Photo by Ashwini Kumar Shukla)
Ashwini Kumar Shukla is a journalist based in Jharkhand. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and writes about rural India, gender, society and culture.
