“On 26th of June, officials said that six residential buildings in Srinagar’s Rainawari locality have developed cracks and suffered damage due to suspected land subsidence prompting the administration to vacate the homes and set up an expert committee to understand its details as well as suggesting ways of addressing it.”
“The officials also added that some houses located in Khwajapora Surteng area within Rainawari started developing cracks on 17th of June this year which became wider over few days.” The local people believed that these cracks are caused by the sinking of portions of land.
They increased each day; “We went to the administration who asked us to vacate houses,” said manzoor Ahmed, a local resident. And fear engulfed all around them.
“Officials said that Deputy Commissioner (Srinagar) Bilal Mohi-Ud-Din Bhat, who is also chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority has set up an expert committee for further inquiry into this incident and give suggestions.”
“Therefore, they stated that a nine-member commitee headed by additional deputy commissioner (Srinagar) Syed Ahmad Kataria has been formed with them including Ghulam Jeelani, Professor Earth Sciences at University of Kashmir. ”
“They added, “Within one week time period, committee needs to come out with findings and suggest measures for preventing environmental damages thereby covering other allied and incidental issues related to land subsidence in this area.”
In 1999-2000, the region experienced some land subsidence after which a case study was conducted by experts led by Dr.Bikram Singh Bali from Department of earth sciences University of kashmir.
The research employed ground penetrating radar which indicated extensive underground mining involving pottery industry in the region dating back about hundred years ago was major surface change phenomenon
Moreover, it noted several decades already when subsidence occurred in this area leading more than half of the structures to be severely damaged.
“The major subsurface observations made were underground cavities, pillar mining structures and voids; the surface deformations were in form of cracks in the building construction that was caused by mining in the past,” said the study.
Moreover, there have been several cases of land subsidence in Jammu and Kashmir recently. In April, 74 families had to leave their homes due to earth sinking at Pernote village in Ramban district.
Furthermore, over a dozen residential houses and a mosque in Doda district’s Garsu village developed cracks two months ago. The riverside road at Batengo of Anantnag district showed cracks in July 2023.
The Tingshore hill cracks appeared on April that year within Halmatpora area of Kupwara. Following this, they experienced land subsidence which damaged many tin shelters raising perils of hill collapse
“Experts say that natural factors such as groundwater dissolution, earthquakes; whilst human activities like groundwater extraction, mining and urban development which can compress or cause soil to sink are some examples”
