Garder village sinks into despair

In the shadow of the Dhauladhar ranges, where families once believed the mountains would be their eternal guardians, homes and fields are now breaking apart underfoot. Garder village, barely 35 km from Palampur, is sinking — literally — as the earth beneath it caves in. Cracks snake across walls, fertile fields collapse into fissures and ancestral homes stand abandoned. The nightmare that struck Joshimath in Uttarakhand has now arrived in Kangra’s Thural region.

Since September 15, Garder has been on the brink. Thirty houses, along with cowsheds, a local school and government buildings, lie shattered. Roads are gashed open, with cracks as wide as five feet cutting off access. Entire families now huddle in makeshift tents or with relatives, bracing themselves against the coming winter and an uncertain tomorrow.

“It was a bolt from the blue,” villagers told The Tribune. “First, we lived in terror of cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides caused by the rains. Then came the sudden cracks in our homes — the ground itself betrayed us. Now our houses are collapsing. Where do we go? How do we live?”

One man, who had moved into his new home just three months ago, watched it collapse before his eyes. His words echoed the pain of many: “We spent our lives building these homes with hard-earned money. Now they are gone. The land keeps cracking, and our dreams have fallen with it.”

Kangra DC Hem Raj Beriwa has confirmed that a “vast area is sinking.” The administration, with army support, has shifted displaced families into tents and is monitoring the crisis. Experts in geology and mining have been called to investigate, but answers are scarce and fear grows by the day. The tragedy is not isolated. In the Bachhwai belt of Sulah, subsidence has been displacing families for three years. Last year, two villages collapsed, forcing 200 people to evacuate.

An elderly villager, now living in a tent with six family members, summed up the despair: “Only the Almighty can save us. Five hundred kanal of land is gone, even our perennial spring has vanished. How can we live in terror every day, waiting for the earth to swallow us?”

Local leader Vipin Parmar has assured that immediate relief and temporary shelters are in place, and permanent resettlement is under consideration. But in Garder and beyond, faith in the soil beneath one’s feet has been shaken. The mountains that once promised shelter now carry a haunting silence.