From 2 January 2023, cracks widened through homes, hotels and roads in Joshimath, a hill town in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, and muddy water burst from the ground in its Marwari area. Residents organised under the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti blocked the Badrinath highway, held rallies and torch marches and sat in protest for 107 days, blaming NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel tunnel and the Helang-Marwari bypass. The administration halted both projects, demolished two leaning hotels and relocated hundreds of families. Expert reports released after a High Court order cleared the NTPC tunnel, blaming fragile ground, poor drainage and unplanned building instead, a finding the protesters dispute.
Key takeaways
- Subsidence in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, sharply worsened from 2 January 2023, when water burst from the ground near JP Colony and cracks spread through homes, hotels and roads.
- The Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti blocked the Badrinath highway on 5 January 2023 and demanded that NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad project and the Helang-Marwari bypass be scrapped, plus rehabilitation and compensation.
- The Chamoli administration halted both projects on 5 January 2023. NTPC said its tunnel "is not passing under Joshimath town".
- Expert reports, released only after the Uttarakhand High Court intervened in September 2023, cleared the NTPC tunnel and blamed fragile ground, drainage and unplanned building.
- The Centre approved a Rs 1,658.17 crore recovery plan in November 2023, and in March 2026 a court acquitted all 21 protesters booked in 2023.
Background: a town on old landslide debris
Joshimath, renamed Jyotirmath by the state government, is the gateway to Badrinath, Hemkund Sahib and the ski resort of Auli, and it hosts a major Army base near the China border ETV Bharat ETV Bharat. A panel under Garhwal Commissioner Mahesh Chandra Mishra reported in the 1970s that major construction should not be carried out there because the area sits on moraine, debris left by glaciers PTI via Deccan Herald.
Residents say the warnings came again before the crisis. Atul Sati of the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (JBSS) said land subsidence had made the houses of 14 families unsafe in November 2021, and that people demonstrated at the tehsil office on 16 November 2021 PTI via Deccan Herald. In November 2010, scientists Piyush Rautela and MPS Bisht published a paper saying NTPC's tunnel boring machine had got stuck near Helang, blocking a water path and sending water flowing upwards, and warning against heavy construction without survey PTI via Deccan Herald.
How it started: cracks and a water gush
Water began flowing from a point near JP Colony in the Marwari area on 2 January 2023. Disaster management secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha said the discharge "stood initially at 540 LPM" PTI via Madhyamam. The Geological Survey of India later put the flow at 600 litres a minute on 2 January, falling to 17 by 2 February Down To Earth.
Cracks spread through houses, hotels, roads and a temple in Singdhar ward, which collapsed on 6 January after being abandoned PTI via Outlook. A former municipal chief, Rishi Prasad Sati, said the Auli ropeway had been stopped after a large crack opened beneath it.
How many buildings and families were affected
Counts come from different bodies using different measures, so each is given with its source and date.
Buildings reported with cracks or damage, 2023
- Families moved: 131 families, 462 people, by 10 January The Quint, citing Indian Express; 274 families in relief centres by 21 January PTI via Madhyamam; around 250 families on 27 January PTI via Deccan Herald.
- Unsafe homes: 86 homes marked unsafe with red crosses by 11 January Scroll.
- May 2023: 96 families were still in relief camps and 200 families had moved to relatives' homes or rented rooms, per the Chamoli administration The Wire.
- CBRI survey: of 2,364 houses it analysed, 20% were "unusable", 42% needed "further assessment", 20% were "usable" and 1% needed demolition, per Times of India reporting cited by The Wire The Wire.
- Samiti's count: more than 1,200 buildings and 1,400 families affected, with fewer than 200 families compensated by April 2024 Down To Earth.
The ISRO images and the gag order
ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) published a preliminary report with Cartosat-2S images. It said Joshimath sank 8.9 cm between April and November 2022, then 5.4 cm in the 12 days from 27 December 2022 to 8 January 2023, and marked the whole town, including the Army helipad and the Narasimha temple, as sensitive Tribune.
The images were soon removed from the NRSC website. State minister Dhan Singh Rawat said: "Now I am told the images have been withdrawn," and added, "No one needs to panic" PTI via The News Minute. ISRO did not give an official reason in the reports reviewed here.
Government's position The National Disaster Management Authority told ISRO, CBRI, GSI and other institutes not to talk to the media or post data until its expert group reported, saying their statements were creating confusion among residents and citizens. Official sources said the aim was not to deny information to the media but to avoid confusion when so many institutions were involved. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge responded: "Do Not Shoot the Messenger" PTI via The News Minute.
The protests and the Samiti's demands
The JBSS had formed in 2022 after its early warnings went unanswered The Wire. Its April 2023 charter to the chief minister had 11 points, including:
- Stopping work on NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad hydropower project and on the Helang-Marwari bypass.
- Declaring the whole Joshimath area disaster affected, and adequate compensation for more than 800 families made homeless.
- Simpler compensation procedures, a relief office in the town and housing until permanent resettlement.
- Publishing the scientific institutions' reports, and implementing a 2010 agreement between NTPC, the governments and local people.
It also wanted compensation "on the lines of Badrinath" PTI via Deccan Herald.
Highway blocked, projects halted
JBSS members blocked traffic on the Badrinath national highway. The same day Joshimath ADM Abhishek Tripathi ordered the Helang bypass works stopped under sections 33 and 34 of the Disaster Management Act The Wire. Work on NTPC's project was also stopped Al Jazeera.
Dharna at the tehsil
Residents staged a dharna at the Joshimath tehsil office demanding rehabilitation, and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami ordered about 600 families evacuated PTI via Outlook.
"NTPC go back" posters
Posters went up across town demanding a ban on the project. The traders' body chief, Naini Singh Bhandari, said traders had been left with nothing Deccan Herald, citing Times of India.
Rally to Singhdhar
Hundreds marched from the Tapovan taxi stand to Ved Vedang ground. Spokesperson Kamal Raturi said: "The urgency necessary to save Joshimath is still missing" PTI via Deccan Herald.
Chakka jam threat
Sati warned of a road blockade on the Badrinath route if demands were not met by 27 April, when the shrine reopened PTI via Deccan Herald.
Sit-in suspended
After Dhami's assurance on 8 April, the Samiti ended its 107-day sit-in and suspended its agitation from 20 April PTI via Deccan Herald The Wire.
Torch march
Saying no action had followed in 22 days, the Samiti held a torchlight procession from TCP bazar to Marwari chowk, despite police attempts to stop it The Wire. Sati said: "Not even 20 per cent of the affected people have received compensation" PTI via Deccan Herald.
Market bandh over bypass
The Border Roads Organisation resumed the bypass on 5 June. The town's traders' body called a market bandh and rally, saying the road would "finish" their businesses PTI via Deccan Herald.
The hotel demolitions
The first demolitions targeted two hotels: the Malari Inn, which had separated from its foundation, and Mount View, which was tilting. CBRI chief scientist PD Kanungo said they would be taken down mechanically without explosives The Quint. On 10 and 11 January the Malari Inn's owner, Thakur Singh Rana, and residents blocked CBRI and SDRF teams, demanding compensation first. "I'll sit here until I die," he said Business Today.
The chief minister's secretary, R Meenakshi Sundaram, said the hotels threatened lives and marked homes only had to be vacated Scroll. Work on the two hotels and a PWD bungalow was under way by 21 January PTI via Madhyamam.
Both accounts
Protesters' account
Claim · JBSS Residents blamed the 12 km tunnel of NTPC's 520 MW project PTI. Sati linked the sinking to an aquifer punctured by the tunnel in December 2009: "Over a decade of water discharge from the aquifer puncture has resulted in the land sinking" Al Jazeera. He said the threat "will persist until these projects are stalled permanently" PTI.
NTPC and government account
NTPC's position NTPC said on 5 January that its tunnel "is not passing under Joshimath town", was dug by boring machine and that no blasting was under way PSU Watch. Officials said the area to be blasted was 11 km from the town, that subsidence was an old problem there, and that it was "wrong" to link it to the project National Herald. Power Minister R K Singh said the problem lay with Joshimath's land: the town had no sewage system, so drainage seeped into the ground and loosened the rocks IANS via Deccan Herald.
Government's position Dhami said "Saving lives is our first priority" PTI via Outlook. On 11 January he promised compensation at market rates and interim aid of Rs 1.5 lakh, said a false impression was being created that all of Uttarakhand was in danger, and called for a balance between ecology and economy Scroll.
The expert reports and the High Court
On 13 January 2023 the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the state to strictly enforce the construction ban and form an independent expert committee LiveLaw. On 1 September it summoned the chief secretary because the committee had not been set up PTI via Deccan Herald. On 20 September, with the eight institutes' reports in a sealed cover, it said: "We see no reason that the state should keep the reports prepared by the experts secret" The Wire. The state then released them.
- GSI: found the JP Colony leak had "no possible connection" with NTPC's tunnel, placed the tunnel about 1.1 km laterally from the town and called blast damage "very unlikely" Down To Earth.
- NIH: said the aquifer burst may have come from a blocked sub-surface channel. Together the reports blamed haphazard construction and poor drainage ETV Bharat.
- NDMA PDNA: did not mention NTPC, recommended restarting the Helang-Marwari bypass and a ban on new construction until after the monsoon, and noted Joshimath had no building permit system Down To Earth. It found 472 houses needed rebuilding and 931 repair PTI via Deccan Herald.
Claim · Sati and geologist SP Sati Atul Sati asked why the GSI's findings differed from damage it noted during construction in 2005. Geologist SP Sati said tunnelling that punctured water sources "must have definitely had an impact" even if the tunnel had no direct role ETV Bharat.
Rehabilitation and compensation
In February 2023 the state fixed compensation for damaged homes at Rs 31,201 to Rs 36,527 per square metre, and Rs 39,182 to Rs 46,099 for commercial buildings PTI via National Herald. By 8 May, Rs 16.50 crore had been paid to 60 families under the package The Wire.
On 30 November 2023 a committee headed by Home Minister Amit Shah approved a Rs 1,658.17 crore recovery and reconstruction plan over three years, with Rs 1,079.96 crore from the Centre PTI via Business Standard. Sati said in April 2024 that land under the buildings still had no price and people refused a proposal to resettle in Gauchar, about 100 km away Down To Earth.
Outcome
- Projects: NTPC's project and the bypass halted on 5 Jan 2023; the BRO resumed the bypass on 5 June 2023.
- Demolitions: Malari Inn, Mount View and a PWD bungalow dismantled from January 2023.
- Court: High Court ordered a construction ban in Jan 2023 and the reports' release in Sept 2023.
- Money: Rs 1,658.17 crore plan approved in Nov 2023; Dhami said Rs 292 crore was released in May 2025.
- Cases: 21 protesters booked in 2023 were acquitted in March 2026.
Where things stand in 2026
On 4 May 2025 Dhami said Rs 1,700 crore had been approved "for sewerage, reconstruction, and waterlogging mitigation" and a first instalment of Rs 292 crore released Business Standard. All India Radio put the sanctioned amount at Rs 291.15 crore AIR News. In April 2025 disaster secretary Vinod Kumar Suman said slope stabilisation was approved and the work would take three years ETV Bharat.
On 24 March 2026 a judicial magistrate in Jyotirmath acquitted all 21 protesters booked for the 2023 rallies and torch marches. Sati called it a victory for the people's struggle Amar Ujala. On 1 April 2026 villagers affected by the Tapovan-Vishnugad project began an indefinite dharna over jobs, threatening to stop project work; NTPC said jobs were given as per rules Amar Ujala. No named outlet reviewed here confirmed when NTPC formally resumed tunnel work.
Questions people ask
Why is Joshimath sinking?
The reports released in September 2023 blamed loose debris slopes, poor drainage, water seepage and unplanned building. Residents also blame NTPC's tunnel, which the GSI and NIH cleared.
Did NTPC's tunnel cause the Joshimath subsidence?
NTPC says no, and the GSI and NIH reports agreed, placing the tunnel about 1.1 km from the town. The Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti and some geologists dispute this, pointing to a 2009 aquifer puncture during tunnelling.
How many houses cracked in Joshimath?
The state counted 863 buildings with cracks by 21 January 2023 and 868 by May. A post-disaster assessment later found 1,403 of 2,152 houses affected, with 472 needing reconstruction.
Why were ISRO's Joshimath images removed?
The NRSC images showing 5.4 cm of sinking in 12 days were taken off its website soon after release. ISRO gave no official reason in the reports reviewed. The NDMA told institutes not to speak to the media, citing confusion.
What did the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti demand?
Scrapping NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad project and the Helang-Marwari bypass, a disaster declaration, adequate compensation and rehabilitation, and publication of the expert reports.
Sources
- ETV Bharat: Joshimath land subsidence, plea in SC, CM meets people, 7 Jan 2023
- PTI via Deccan Herald: 65% houses in Joshimath impacted, govt report, 27 Sept 2023
- PTI via Deccan Herald: Strong resentment in Joshimath for ignoring warnings, 7 Jan 2023
- PTI via Deccan Herald: HC summons chief secretary on Joshimath, 1 Sept 2023
- PTI via Madhyamam: Buildings with cracks rise to 863, 22 Jan 2023
- Down To Earth: Landslides not a new problem, says GSI report, Oct 2023
- PTI via Outlook: Dhami orders evacuation of 600 families, 7 Jan 2023
- The Quint: 723 houses damaged; demolition of 2 hotels halted, 10 Jan 2023
- PTI via Deccan Herald: Locals protest against slow pace of efforts, 28 Jan 2023
- Scroll: CM visits Joshimath as protests continue, 11 Jan 2023
- The Wire: Joshimath victims resume agitation, May 2023
- The Wire: No reason for Joshimath reports to be kept secret, says HC, 21 Sept 2023
- Down To Earth: Joshimath evacuees return to unsafe homes, 12 Apr 2024
- Tribune: ISRO report shows entire Joshimath may sink, Jan 2023
- PTI via The News Minute: ISRO report withdrawn, bodies told not to talk to media, Jan 2023
- The Wire: Residents protest, govt halts construction, 6 Jan 2023
- Al Jazeera: Month later, rehabilitation eludes Joshimath residents, 13 Feb 2023
- Deccan Herald: 'NTPC go back' placards emerge across Joshimath, 15 Jan 2023
- PTI via Deccan Herald: Activists threaten to block Badrinath route, 5 Apr 2023
- PTI via Deccan Herald: People march in protest in Joshimath, 12 May 2023
- PTI via Deccan Herald: Joshimath market observes bandh over bypass, 23 June 2023
- Business Today: Locals oppose demolition of hotels, 11 Jan 2023
- PSU Watch: Tunnel not responsible for landslide, says NTPC, Jan 2023
- National Herald: Subsidence not linked to tunnelling, claim NTPC officers, 18 Jan 2023
- IANS via Deccan Herald: No link, says Power Minister, 17 Jan 2023
- LiveLaw: Uttarakhand HC orders strict construction ban, 13 Jan 2023
- ETV Bharat: Clean chit to NTPC over Joshimath land sinking, 25 Sept 2023
- Down To Earth: No mention of NTPC project in NDMA report, Oct 2023
- PTI via National Herald: Compensation rates for Joshimath announced, 24 Feb 2023
- PTI via Business Standard: Govt approves Rs 1,658 crore plan, 30 Nov 2023
- Business Standard: Rs 1,700 crore approved for Joshimath rehab, first instalment released, 4 May 2025
- AIR News (Hindi): Rs 291 crore sanctioned to secure Jyotirmath, 4 May 2025
- ETV Bharat: Disaster management dept on high alert ahead of yatra, 21 Apr 2025
- Amar Ujala (Hindi): All acquitted in cases filed over disaster-era agitation, 24 Mar 2026
- Amar Ujala (Hindi): Project-affected villagers begin indefinite dharna, 1 Apr 2026