That sinking feeling: Is the Joshimath subsidence a result of NTPC’s hydropower project?

AFP

A resident sits next to a cracked wall of her house at Joshimath in Chamoli district of India's Uttarakhand state on January 8, 2023

Synopsis
There are infrastructure projects worth INR40,000 crore coming up in the Chamoli district. NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad project is one of them. Scientists have, time and again, declared Joshimath ecologically fragile as it is situated on an old landslide deposit, and advised against projects that involve blasting to cut mountains, tunnelling, and unabated disposal of debris into the river.

Anger, despair, disquiet, frustration. A glut of emotion rolls into one when one asks Atul Sati about the current situation in Joshimath. While the Uttarakhand hill town has faced nature's fury several times in the past, Sati, the convener of the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, says tunnelling for NTPC's 520MW hydro project is one of the key and immediate triggers for the land subsidence that is threatening over 25,000 inhabitants. “We have