Residents of Joshimath, where subsidence had wreaked havoc earlier this year, have complained to the local authorities that they can hear the sound of gushing water underground and are spending their days in fear of another disaster.

Vinod Saklani, a resident of J.P. Colony, told reporters on Thursday that he can hear a huge quantity of water flowing underneath whenever he puts his ear to the floor of his house. “We do not know from where this water is coming and going but the sound is a nightmare,” he said.

Piyoosh Rautela, a professional geologist, had during the last round of subsidence in January said that a spike in the central Himalayan town’s sinking rate had been triggered by a sudden release of underground water.

The water discharge from a burst aquifer — a water-bearing subterranean rock — that started on the night of January 2-3 had resulted in cracks in houses and other structures in parts of Joshimath, said Rautela, executive director with Uttarakhand’s Disaster Management Authority.

Kalachand Sai, director of Dehradun’s Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, said on Thursday: “Water forms a channel beneath the earth. Such a channel is there below Joshimath also. It is more active during monsoon.”

Joshimath DM Himanshu Khurana said: “We have come to know about fresh subsidence and asked the affected residents to shift to the camps that were opened for such families (last time).”