Houses in UP's Aligarh develop cracks; closely after Joshimath

Aligarh: There are reports coming from Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh that houses are developing cracking, reports IANS.

The news comes after the crisis Uttarakhand's Joshimath faces after many buildings and houses developed cracks and turned uninhabitable, causing panic among locals and forcing mass evacuations.

Additional Commissioner of the Aligarh Municipal Corporation, Rakesh, said, "We will send our team, and a probe will be conducted into why this has happened."

Meanwhile, locals alleged that the government laid a pipeline under the Smart City Scheme and at the moment it is leaking. This is the reason behind the cracks and fissures here.

Several houses in the Kanwariganj area were the ones that reported cracks and leaks.

Mansoor Ali, a local resident, said, "It has been 3-4 days. We have intimated about the same to the department, but no assistance has been provided so far. We are being forced to live in terror."

In Joshimath, cracks started developing in hundreds of homes earlier this month as Joshimath saw subsidence over a large area. Several families have been evacuated. Many were instructed to move into temporary relief centres or rent housing.

In the gateway town to Badrinath, Hemakund Sahib and Auli skiing area, 86 houses were declared as an unsafe zone. The district administration marked them with red crosses as uninhabitable.

Experts have warned that more towns in Uttarkhand are vulnerable to land subsidence, meaning they could sink the way Joshimath does.

Dr Kotlia added the events in Joshimath could happen in areas including Nainital, Uttarkashi and Champawat, which are highly prone to seismic activity and reactivation of faultlines alongside stress from increasing population and construction activities. The foundation of these cities is very poor, making them very vulnerable," Dr Kotlia warned. Nainital, in particular, is experiencing heavy tourism that led to massive construction in the area.

But land subsidence has never been a matter of concern when the foothills of the Himalayas were massively built over, thanks to being a tourist destination. Now that land is giving away from the weight building that popped up; reports say 'Land subsidence is one of the biggest overlooked environmental consequences', according to India Today.