Snow avalanche hits Kedarnath valley, 6 km above temple

A snow avalanche occurred in the mountains behind Kedarnath shrine at around 8.56am on Monday although it was not as massive as the one that occurred on June 8 in the area, said officials.

“A massive snow avalanche had hit the mountains around the Kedarnath Temple in Uttarakhand on Thursday, but the fresh avalanche was not that big compared to the earlier one”, said Anand Shukla, temple priest at Kedarnath sharing the pictures of the avalanche he took while he was on his way to the shrine to attend to the devotees.

A similar snow avalanche on June 4, en route to Hemkund Sahib, the revered Sikh shrine which was opened for devotees on May 20, had resulted in the death of one pilgrim while five of them were rescued by a team of State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF).

Earlier this year also, snow avalanches/glacier breakages have been reported in the higher Himalayan valleys.

On May 3, Kuber glacier broke off on the 16-km Kedarnath Dham trek route, 3 km ahead of the Kedarnath shrine. SDRF personnel rescued four Nepalese porters who were trapped in the glacier breakage area. On May 4, again a glacier broke off at Bhairav Padav, nearly 3 km ahead of the shrine in Rudraprayag district.

On May 7, a glacier broke off in Darma Valley of Pithoragarh district blocking the road in the area. On April 30, a snow avalanche triggered by overnight rain and a fresh spell of snow was reported near snow-clad Neelkanth peak in Chamoli district. The pilgrims at Badrinath shrine captured the moment on their mobile phones as the loose snow drifted down into the ravine without causing any loss of life and property as it was far away from the habitation.

Located at a height of nearly 3,500 meters above sea level, the Kedarnath temple is located near the Mandakini River in the Rudraprayag district. The 16 trek for Kedarnath Dham starts from Gauri Kund. According to tradition, the shrine was built by Pandavas and revived by Adi Shankaracharya. The shrine was the worst affected area during the 2013 flash floods, with Kedarnath town suffering extensive damages.

In Uttarakhand, there are over 1000 glaciers. These glaciers, coupled with extreme local weather events and changes in terrain, can lead to lake outbursts, or lake formation due to the rockfall or landslides in the valleys or on slopes. According to experts, only around 10 or so glaciers are being monitored. The ones that are being studied include Gangotri Glacier, Chorabari glacier, Dunagiri glacier, Dokriyani glacier and Pindari glaciers. One major reason is the location of these glaciers in remote snowy areas and lack of enough funding for their regular monitoring, which requires the setting of observatories, sensors and other equipment in the valleys downstream, apart from regular ground surveys.

How glaciers can lead to devastating flash floods downstream can be understood from the fact they can hold large quantum of water in their crevices and cavities and due to blockage by debris or moraine formation at their snouts. On February 7 2021, there was breakage of a glacier in Chamoli district, which led to a flash flood and created havoc downstream, killing 204 people.