Dubai: A Himalayan glacial avalanche triggered off the base of India’s second highest peak that plunged down a river valley, smashed into a dam and swept away scores of people in its wake, has prompted a daunting search operation in one of the world’s most ecologically fragile regions, Indian officials and climate scientists told Gulf News on Sunday night.
More than 200 people are feared dead after Sunday’s avalanche in Joshimath area of Chamoli district in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, which led to massive flooding in Dhauliganga and Alaknanda rivers, smashed dams and damaged two power projects and levelled dozens of houses along the narrow canyons of the Nanda Devi mountain range.
What really happened?
People stationed near the construction site of the state-run NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project on the Dhauliganga river heard a “large bang and screams of people” shortly after 10.45am, Abhinav Kumar, Inspector General of Police for Garhwal in Uttarakhand, told Gulf News over the phone on Sunday.
Dramatic scenes of walls of water, mud and rock flowing down the Alaknanda, Rishiganga and Dhauli Ganga river valleys — all intricately-linked tributaries of the Ganges flowing from the Himalayas — and causing large-scale devastations went viral on social media on Sunday.
Uttarakhand, in the western Himalayas, is prone to flash floods and landslides, and its glaciers connect to the Himalayan system that feeds 10 of the world’s most important rivers, including the Ganges, Indus and Mekong. “It’s not yet clear whether the avalanche was caused by any glacial break or by temporary blockade of the Rishiganga flow,” Prof Mahendra Pratap Singh Bisht, director of the state-run Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (USAC), told Gulf News on Sunday.
“The Rishiganga gets the melt of 14 glaciers from the Nanda Devi National Park and there are a number of sits where slope failures may occur,” said Bisht, whose agency is involved with tracking the formidable terrain of the Himalayas using space technology.
What is the latest situation?
The avalanche and the floods prompted a massive search and rescue operation, coordinated by the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force of Uttarakhand (SDRF) and several federal agencies. Several NDRF teams were airlifted from New Delhi to the rescue site, while Indian air force was being readied to help with operations and army soldiers had been deployed with helicopters doing reconnaissance, Kumar said. “Currently no additional water flows are being reported on the rivers and there is no flood situation anywhere,” he said.
The neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous, immediately put its riverside areas on high alert. Authorities emptied two dams farther down the river to stop the flood waters from reaching towns of Haridwar and Rishikesh, where popular tourist spots on the banks of the Ganges.
How bad is the damage?
While the under-construction Dhauliganga hydropower plant was extensively damaged, a 13.2MW hydropower plant on the Alaknanda River was destroyed. At least 178 people at the NTPC sites were missing after the flash floods and more than a dozen bodies had been recovered, Kumar said. “The damage assessment still going on and will take at least another day. But right now our priority is to find survivors and the focus is on the search and rescue operations,” he said.
As details of the disaster came in, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind said he was deeply worried about the glacier burst. “Praying for well-being and safety of people. Am confident that rescue and relief operations on ground are progressing well,” he tweeted. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was constantly monitoring the situation in the state. “India stands with Uttarakhand, prays for everyone’s safety,” he said, and announced financial compensation of Rs200,000 for the next of the kin of all those who have lost their lives.
What about the rescue work?
By the time nightfall had forced the suspension of the search, officials said more than 200 people remained unaccounted for. “The torrent came very fast, there was no time to alert anyone,” Sanjay Singh Rana, who lives near the Dhauli Ganga river, told Reuters. “I felt that even we would be swept away.” Several people were rescued from the tunnels and slush they were trapped in. Covered in mud, several men were pulled to safety from a tunnel by ITBP personnel in Tapovan. One of the rescued workers was seen taking a euphoric leap to celebrate what he called his “new life”.
Why is this area so significant and vulnerable?
In 2019, a UN-sponsored study found that the melting of Himalayan glaciers could rapidly accelerate in the next decades thanks to warming and increased air pollution from a growing population. Plus, air pollutants from the Indo-Gangetic Plain — one of the world’s most polluted regions — makes the glacier situation worse by depositing black carbon and dust on the ice, hastening the thaw.
The impacts that the scientists are worried about will hit not just those living in the mountains, but also the 1.65 billion people living in the river valleys below across several countries — all of whom are vulnerable to flooding and the destruction of crops. In June 2013, record monsoon rains in Uttarakhand caused devastating floods that claimed close to 6,000 lives.
So is climate change to blame for this?
“India is among the world’s most disaster-prone countries with 27 of its 29 states and seven union territories exposed to recurrent natural hazards,” said Dr Jyotsna Puri, Director of Environment, Climate, Nutrition, Gender and Social Inclusion Division at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised UN agency.
To counter this, Dr Puri said, India needs to increase capacity for disaster preparedness and response. “India’s National Disaster Management Agency and Border Roads Organization needs more resources and capacity but also better and larger mandate for risk-informed programming that transcends ministries,” she told Gulf News.
“These agencies need the remit to work across ministries to ensure disaster risk programming occurs at all levels and is integrated in plans, budgets, procurement and programmes. Emergency preparedness and response is no longer about being prepared for the future WHEN disasters occur. That time is NOW,” she said.
Bisht said about a quarter of the ice on Himalayan glaciers have been lost over the past four decades because of increased temperatures. “Avalanches are common phenomena in the catchment area. Huge landslides also frequently occur. Himalayan glaciers must be studied with priority,” he said.
