The land sinking in the villages started on Friday, damaging nearly 16 houses and three of them developed cracks on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. The sinking of the power transmission network has snapped the supply of electricity to a dozen panchayats in Gool, Jammu and Kashmir.
Three more houses and a 33-kv power transmission line were damaged due to the further sinking of the land in Jammu and Kashmir's hilly Duksar Dalwa village in the Ramban district. The incident comes close on the heels of various reports of destructions following phenomena of land subsidence across states in the Himalayan terrain, beginning with Uttarakhand's Joshimath most recently.
The land sinking in the villages started on Friday, damaging nearly 16 houses and three of them developed cracks on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. The sinking of the power transmission network has snapped the supply of electricity to a dozen panchayats in Gool.
A team from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) is visiting the village on Tuesday to ascertain the reasons for the sudden "sinking" of land, which has so far rendered 16 families homeless besides damaging a 500-metre stretch of now closed Sangaldan-Gool road, the officials said.
Ramban Deputy Commissioner Mussarat Islam visited the village and interacted with the affected families, assuring them of every possible help from the administration in their rehabilitation.
He directed the Gool Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Tanveer-ul-Majeed Wani, to process relief cases of damaged houses on war-footing under SDRF to provide assistance to victims in the shortest possible time.
The GSI experts are scheduled to arrive at Duksar on Tuesday to ascertain the reasons behind the sinking of land, the officials said, adding the electricity supply to a dozen panchayats in Gool was snapped following damage to the 33-kV power transmission line passing through the village.
The deputy commissioner also inspected the Dharam-Salballa road to use it as a temporary alternate route for regulating essential services and supplies to Gool and directed the Public Works Department to make the road traffic worthy.
He also passed the directions to officers concerned for the restoration of power and water supply in affected areas, the officials said, adding directions were given for quick relaying of the 33 KV network so that power supply to Gool is restored.
In early February, the Thathri village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district also developed cracks and villagers fear that another Joshimath is in the making around them.
The Thathri village is situated on a slope and panicked residents of the Nayi Basti area of the village —which is affected by cracks— say it’s becoming uninhabitable. They have started moving to safer locations. They have also requested the J&K administration for alternative land allotment.
(with PTI inputs)