Glacier breach causes floods in Uttarakhand

A glacier breach on Sunday morning at Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district triggered a massive flood that hit two hydropower projects near the Naina Devi National Park, about 300 kilometres north of Dehradun, killing at least seven people and leaving around 170 missing and feared dead.

It was as the biggest glacial lake outburst since June 2013 ,when flash floods caused the death of an estimated 5,700 people in and around the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand, highlighting the impact of climate change and continuing degradation of the ecology in the fragile upper reaches of the mountainous northern Indian state.

At least seven people were confirmed to have died in Sunday’s disaster and 170, workers engaged on two hydropower projects, were missing and feared to have perished. Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said as many as 28 workers engaged in the Rishiganga hydel dam project located close to the glacial lake were among the missing. “Two policemen are also missing,” he told reporters on Sunday evening after reviewing relief and rescue operations.

Rawat said 176 people had been working on NTPC Limited’s under-construction hydropower project in Taporvan, around 5km downstream, when the disaster struck.

“There are two tunnels there. In one tunnel there were around 15, in another tunnel there were around 30 to 35 workers. Thirty five to forty five came back and were rescued. One is injured. Rescue work is being carried out with much difficulty with ropes and digging of the muck that has filled the tunnels. But no contact could be made to the trapped workers inside the tunnel. Seven bodies have been recovered so far,” he said.

Eyewitnesses recalled that such was the force of the water flowing and boulders rolling down from the upper reaches near Raini village that the under-construction Rishi Ganga dam was completely washed away.

The debris from there gushed into the Dhauliganga river, a tributary of the Alaknanda, causing heavy damage to the 530 MW Dhauli Ganga hydel project, just 10 kilometres away.

Close to 170 workers in the two hydropower projects were missing. Of the 16 stranded in a tunnel in the NTPC plant, two were rescued through a specially dug trench on Sunday evening. “Rescue operations are on,” said Uttarkhand disaster relief force spokesperson Alok Raven.

“The river was flowing 10-15 metres above its normal level and took everything along. Only a few concrete structures on the banks remain of the Rishi Ganga hydel project,” said Dhan Singh Rawat, who rushed out of his house in Raini village after hearing a huge explosion.

As videos of the breach went viral, the state government issued an alert on possible flooding in the Ganga river till Haridwar. People living at many places on the banks of the river were being evacuated.

According to the Uttarakhand government, the glacial lake burst was first seen on Sunday morning between 9.30 and 10 am. Experts said that the water from the glacial lake, which could have burst because of an avalanche, could have started much earlier. There is very little satellite monitoring of glaciers in this region.

Soon afterwards, disaster relief teams from its local base in Joshimath rushed to the spot to initiate rescue operations, along with the local police force. Later they were joined by army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel from nearby bases, officials said. Five teams of the National Disaster Response Force were also flown in to assist in the rescue work, officials said.

Raven said: “The rescue teams recovered two bodies from the Dhauliganga hydel power project. We are unable to receive much information about the rescue operation because of communication problems with the rescue teams. Apart from that, we are also not bothering them much as it would disturb them in their rescue work.”