Many buildings have developed cracks and some have collapsed in Joshimath. PTI
A preliminary observation by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reveals that the sinking town of Joshimath located in the hilly state of Uttarakhand sank by 5.4 cm in just 12 days.
The report by ISRO also points out to the fact that Joshimath might sink as a result of rapid land subsidence. In the central part of the town, army helipads have been witnessing subsidence.
Image courtesy: @HarshVatsa7/Twitter
ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) released satellite images of Joshimath and under prevailing conditions the entire town might sink, a report by IANS said.
A geologist, Harsh Vats, shed some light on the issue on his Twitter, “Sentinel-1 SAR imagery (Descending pass) was processed using the DInSAR technique to identify the possible location and extent of land subsidence in long- and short-time intervals. Slow subsidence up to ~ -9 cm within Joshimath town is recorded, between April and November 2022.
The ISRO-identified subsidence zone was correlated with data acquired by a satellite named Cartosat – 2S satellite on 7 and 10 January 2023.
Image courtesy: @HarshVatsa7/Twitter
The government of Uttarakhand has begun rescue operations in the area and residents are being moved to safer locations on priority.
With inputs from agencies
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