The National Disaster Management Authority has said in its report that Uttarakhand’s Joshimath must be declared a zone of “no new constructions”.

In its 130-page ‘Post Disaster Need Assessment’ (PDNA) report on the town’s ‘sinking’, it has also said that the town far exceeds its carrying capacity, according to TOI.

It’s one of eight reports on Joshimath, each by a key central scientific and technical institution, that the state government has not made public for the past several months.

In January this year, the eight institutions—Central Building Research Institute, Geological Survey of India, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Geophysical Research Institute, Central Ground Water Board, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, National Institute of Hydrology, and IIT Roorkee—were given the mandate to ascertain the causes of ground subsidence in the area in and around Joshimath and to carry out remedial measures.

As per the TOI, the institutions submitted their preliminary reports to the National Disaster Management Authority towards the end of January. The reports were subsequently shared with the state government but were never made public. Last week, the state government submitted copies of the report in a sealed cover for the Uttarakhand High Court’s consideration.

“Joshimath exceeded its carrying capacity, far beyond its capacity, and the area must be declared as a no-new construction zone,” the NDMA said in its report.

While the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) in its 1/80-page report questioned the current construction practices in Joshimath and recommended reviewing the principles of town planning for the development of towns here and in similar hilly parts of the Himalayas. The CBRI also sought a plan for “phase de-densification of Joshimath and similar locations”.