Text/Fat Eggplant
According to the Associated Press on January 14, a few days ago, the "sinking disaster" in the northern Indian town of Zhuoshimas is intensifying, so that the Indian government had to evacuate a large number of people. At first glance, this is the Indians' own "livelihood news", but it is such a thing that makes the Indian army quite a headache.
(The road in Droshmas is badly damaged)
Not long ago, India pulled the United States together to launch a joint military exercise codenamed "War Readiness-22" in Oli, a small town near the Line of Actual Control in the western section of the Sino-Indian border, in which the US 11th Airborne Division and India's "Assam Legion" and other units participated.
While both sides claim that the purpose of the exercise is to "maintain regional peace" and "enhance interoperability between U.S. and Indian forces." However, the United States and India specifically selected this place for the exercise at a time when the situation on the Sino-Indian border is tense, and it is clearly aimed at China.
(U.S. and Indian soldiers exercising at the border)
And what do these two things have to do with each other? The answer is this: this Zhuoshimas, where the severe subsidence disaster occurred, is the only gateway to Orlie, a strategic point for the US-India exercises.
Orly is a strategic place located on a high mountain, only 42 kilometers away from the Line of Actual Control between China and India, and is an important tactical and even strategic fulcrum for the Indian army's activities along the Line of Actual Control in western China and India, where the Indian Army maintains a number of permanent military facilities. This is also an important reason why the United States and India chose to exercise in the region to "deter China".
And Zhuoshimas is not only a rear support base, but also a permanent station of the famous "Garwar Scout Battalion", which is one of the important border quick reaction forces. But above all, the only land access to Orly is the winding road from Zoshmas.
(U.S.-India military exercise in Orish)
More than 600 houses have been damaged, roads and other transportation facilities have been severely damaged, and more than 25,000 people have been affected. In this case, it is almost impossible for the Indian army in Orly to be unaffected - in fact, there are already many roads in the area that have lost traffic due to the collapse of the road.
The team of experts from India's National Disaster Management Agency believes that although this geological subsidence disaster was detected as early as 2020, "the cracks found this year are much larger than before" and are likely to worsen further in the future.
In the future, the city is likely to undergo a large-scale "collapse", which will directly lead to the complete blocking of the land access to Orly. At that time, India with limited infrastructure efficiency will have to completely rely on air passages to airlift materials to Austria, and reinforcements from the rear will not be able to arrive in the first time, making the Indian border troops stationed in Austria completely "alone". This will greatly weaken India's "border deterrent force", and the Indian army's plot to "expand the Line of Control with local force superiority" will face bankruptcy.
(Houses damaged by the collapse of Droshmas)
In the past, Indians must have tried to throw the pot on China, but this time, Indians really can't escape responsibility as before - this disaster, to a large extent, is actually caused by the Indians themselves.
The state of Uttarakhand, where Choshmas, is located, is notoriously resource-limited and economically backward, so the local area has carried out a large number of hydropower projects using water resources in the mountains. In the Araknanda Valley alone, dozens of hydropower projects are underway.
In order to divert water to the Tabovan hydropower station, the Indians hastily dug a tunnel under the mountain where Zhuoshimas was located without careful study, directly destroying the local mountain structure. A large amount of groundwater that was forced to be "diverted" invaded the mountain, eventually forcing Zhuoshimas to stand on a soft "floating soil".
(Tapovan Hydropower Station Site)
Coupled with the overexploitation of the land resources of Zhuoshimas by locals in order to make money, and the already abundant local precipitation, plus the unprecedented mudslide in 2021 severely damaged
The stability of the mountain, under the action of many factors, led to the intensification of the geological subsidence disaster in Zhuoshimas.
Unfortunately, while India is currently concentrating a great deal of effort on solutions, neither the Rurki Institute of Technology, the Wadia Himalayan Institute of Geology nor the Geological Survey of India have been able to come up with a proper solution. After all, the seeds of disaster were planted by the Indians themselves more than a decade ago when the hydropower plant was started, and now they will have to eat the bitter fruit they planted.