While the land subsidence in Joshimath has captured the attention of the entire country, cracks on the roads and fissures on the walls of houses in Karnaprayag, 82 kilometres away, have largely gone unreported.

More than two dozen houses in the Bahuguna Colony in Karnaprayag have developed cracks that began to appear approximately ten years ago.

The fissures and cracks are now sufficiently wide and long to render several houses inhabitable, forcing the owners and occupants to relocate.

Others who were unable to find alternative accommodations on their own are staying at the municipal shelter.

Speaking to The Indian Express Tula Devi Bisht, a local, said, "The house was constructed in 2010. Cracks started to appear on the walls of the room after a market was established nearby three years later in 2013. We initially ignored the cracks, but now almost every room is uninhabitable."

The majority of her home's walls have fissures and cracks, and all attempts to fill the gaping holes proved futile as they reappeared within a few months.

A similar tale is shared by Kamla Raturi, who lives next to Bisht.

"The house was constructed in 2000 and has six rooms. Four of the rooms were vacated by tenants last year, and we moved out of the remaining two rooms around two months ago when the cracks became too large to ignore," she said while talking to The Indian Express.

"Like all the other houses in the area, cracks started showing up in 2013. In October and November of last year, the cracks in the walls and floor suddenly got bigger, the roof tilted, and the doors stopped working. When that happened, the people who lived in the houses left. Who wouldn't want to?" she added.

A bulletin from the Chamoli district administration says that so far, 723 houses in Joshimath have developed cracks and 86 houses have been put in the "danger zone." Nearly 449 people from 145 families have been moved to temporary shelters.

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