New settlements, with homes and buildings built on slopes without a proper drainage system, may have led to the land shifting or sinking at the Nai Basti village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district, officials in the region said on Sunday, even as administration waited for a report from geological experts.
At least 22 houses were emptied out on Friday and 300 people have been moved from the area after cracks spread across several structures, leading to the collapse of at least three. The incident has drawn parallels with the crisis in Joshimath in Uttarakhand, where over 800 people have had to be relocated after cracks spread through buildings as the land shifted.
“Despite being an area that had sinking in the 1980s, people from upper reaches of the Doda district kept raising new constructions. Water seepage and new constructions prima facie seem to be the trigger behind the land subsidence,” one of the officials in the region said, asking not to be named.
Much of Doda is settled along a valley created by the river Chenab. The Nai Basti village is settled on a portion of the slopes leading to the valley.
The person quoted above explained that with a lack of proper drainage lines, sewage and rainwater runoff seeps into the ground.
Athar Amin Zargar, sub divisional magistrate of Thathri, the area under which Nai Basti falls, said that the problem of the ground shifting does not seem to have grown in area, but existing cracks have widened.
“The situation is under control. The zone of influence hasn’t spread since Thursday and no new structure has developed cracks, which is a positive thing for us. However, cracks in the damaged houses within the zone of influence have increased,” he said.
A team from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has visited the area to identify the extent of the problems and the causes behind it. Zargar said the report “is yet to be submitted to the government.”
Doda region falls under seismic zone category 4, which means it is extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.
Zargar said that since Thursday the status of the affected houses remained the same.
Officials in J&K’s Ramban district’s Ramsu separately said that around eight to ten days ago, the police shifted four families to a government high school after their houses developed.
Ramsu SHO, inspector Naem-ul-Haq said “a road construction work—part of the national highway project, is on in the area, for which the authorities had acquired land where two houses were constructed. During rains around 10 days ago, the two houses, which were vacant, collapsed. However, rains triggered sliding of the land which has 12 houses over it”.
The area is called Basti.