Uttarakhand flash flood: Rescue ops, halted after rise in Rishiganga river level, resume
The death toll after the flash flood in Chamoli district has risen to 34, out of which 10 have been identified, and 204 people are still missing.
Rescuers resumed their operation after they were stopped temporarily following a rise in the level of water in the Rishiganga river, news agency ANI reported on Thursday. "The water level is rising so teams were shifted to safer locations. The operation has resumed with limited teams,” personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), was quoted as saying by ANI.
Before this, Uttarakhand’s director general of police Ashok Kumar had said that people have also been asked to vacate the areas downstream, ANI had reported. Local police also said that the water level in the river is rising and people living in nearby areas are being alerted.
“We had reached a distance of 6 metres and then realised that water is coming there. Had we continued, there would have been issues as rocks are unstable. Excavators would have fallen. So, we have suspended drilling operation for time being,” Ujjwal Bhattacharya, NTPC’s project director, was quoted as saying by ANI earlier.
Aparna Kumar, deputy inspector general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), had said earlier in the day that rescue operations were underway inside Tapovan tunnel in Chamoli. "There is a possibility that some more people could be stuck inside the tunnel. NTPC team is using vertical drilling to find their whereabouts," Kumar was quoted as saying by ANI.
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ITBP’s troops are helping to construct a bridge across villages disconnected in Chamoli and which will be used to transport ration. Rescuers had begun drilling inside the 2.5km Tapovan tunnel in Chamoli to rescue more than 35 workers trapped there after Sunday’s flash flood, news agency Reuters said.
According to Reuters, soldiers have made only halting progress in four days and after clearing more than 100 metres of mud, rocks and debris, relief workers on Thursday sent water tankers and generators deep into the tunnel to assist in drilling. They are trying to search for signs of life in smaller tunnels and rooms branching off from the main passage, Reuters reported citing officials said.
Meanwhile, the death toll after the flash flood in Chamoli district has risen to 34, out of which 10 have been identified, and 204 people are still missing, ANI had reported earlier in the day. The news agency also cited the State Secretariat as saying that the two people, working with the Rishi Ganga company and said to be missing, have reached their homes.
The people who are unaccounted for since Sunday's disaster are mostly workers at the Tapovan Vishnugad hydroelectric project and at the smaller Rishiganga dam, which was swept away by the barrage of water.
A glacier broke in Chamoli’s Tapovan-Reni area on Sunday, which led to massive flooding in Dhauliganga and Alaknanda rivers as bridges and roads were swept away.
The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) has said in an analysis that more than 85% of Uttarakhand’s districts are hotspots of extreme floods and associated weather events. The council said in its analysis the frequency and intensity of extreme flood events in Uttarakhand have increased four-fold since 1970. Flood related events such as landslides, cloud bursts, glacial lake outbursts, etc. have also increased four-fold during this period, causing massive loss and damage, it added.
Chamoli, where the glacial breach disaster took place last Sunday, Haridwar, Nainital, Pithoragarh and Uttarkashi districts are the most vulnerable to extreme floods according to the analysis.
