Asia | Cracks in the façade

India’s sinking towns spark debates about development

A crisis in the Himalayas embarrasses the government

A woman sits beside a cracked wall of her house at Joshimath in Chamoli district of India's Uttarakhand state on January 10, 2023. - Authorities in one of the holiest towns in the Indian Himalayas were evacuating panicked residents after hundreds of houses began developing yawning cracks and sinking, officials said on January 8. (Photo by Brijesh Sati / AFP) (Photo by BRIJESH SATI/AFP via Getty Images)
Falling apartImage: Getty Images
|Joshimath

IT IS NEARLY two years since cracks appeared in the walls of the house in which Durga Prasad Saklani lived with his wife and daughters. Since then the 52-year-old from Sunil, a village near Joshimath in the state of Uttarakhand in the Himalayas, has filed endless petitions warning that his home is sliding down the mountain. For a long time, says Mr Saklani, “nobody cared”.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Cracks in the façade”

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