Environment: Fourteen people have died and 170 are missing after a glacial break in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district triggered an avalanche and massive flooding of the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers on Sunday morning.
Most of those killed or missing are believed to be people working on hydropower projects in the region—the 520 MW NTPC Tapovan Vishnugad and the 130 MW Rishiganga plant. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has announced INR 4 lakh as compensation for the families of those killed.
According to scientists, the flash flood of water, mud, and rocks that swept through the river valleys was a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), probably triggered by a gigantic chunk of ice separating from a glacier.
Global warming is causing glaciers across the world, including those along the Himalayas, to retreat; this results in an increase in the size of many glacial lakes. For instance, the Safed Lake—another glacial lake in Uttarakhand—has doubled in size over the past 50 years. As the number of glacial lakes and their sizes increase, so does the risk of catastrophic flash floods like the one that took place on Sunday.
When the hydroelectric dams were planned twenty or more years ago, the changes in water flows that would occur due to the melting of glaciers were not taken into account. Experts are therefore calling for extreme caution now when awarding infrastructure projects in the area.
