As the Uttarakhand government prepares a rehabilitation package for Joshimath, which is facing a crisis due to its gradual sinking, environment expert Vimlendu Jha stated that the town has been negatively impacted by the actions of NTPC engineers. According to Jha, there is no possibility of repair and no way to reverse the current situation. He directly blames NTPC for the disaster, stating that their claim that the tunnel for their hydel project does not pass under Joshimath is false and that the problem is actually caused by aquifer breaches.

According to Jha, the disaster in Joshimath is caused by the NTPC engineers puncturing aquifers through tunneling under the town using their tunnel-boring machines. He states that the seepage of muddy water from homes and the ground is evidence of this “engineered crime” and the resulting aquifer breaches. Jha wrote about this in a detailed Twitter thread analyzing the catastrophe.

Vimlendu Jha criticizes the approach of the engineers, saying that not all soil is the same and can be treated the same way when it comes to digging, moving, and blasting. He states that the Himalayas are in a high seismic zone and are subject to extreme climate events, yet the engineers made a plan on AutoCAD as if it were a plain soil. Jha suggests that engineering colleges should teach students about different types of soil, such as alluvial, laterite, desert, black cotton, peaty, and more, and that each type of soil has unique characteristics and carrying capacities that must be taken into consideration.

Vimlendu Jha points to the example of the Chamoli flash flood of February 2021 as evidence of the ecological vulnerability of the Himalayas and the reckless behavior of authorities. He states that regardless of political affiliation, the authorities prioritize short-term gains for private companies and contractors over the protection of the environment and the safety of the local population.