Chamoli flash flood: A wake-up call

On February 7, around 10 a.m., a landslide, the trigger of which was unknown, crashed into a lake formed in the past in the Nanda Devi Sanctuary in Uttarakhand, resulting in a flash flood bearing mud and other debris that hurtled down the steep slopes and claimed at least 56 lives and two hydroelectric power projects. This wedge of approximately size of 100x30x80 m slid down from approximately 2,000 m with further failing en route mass containing nearly 300,000 cubic m of material and bursting the supposedly previously formed lake in the past and triggering the flash flood.” Formation of new lake The survey also reported that in the downstream part, a “large lake had been created in the right rivulet of the Nanda Ghongati nalla due to the blockage of the mouth of the rivulet by approximately 60 m high debris, requiring immediate attention”. If Naresh Rana can go without any support, it is not impossible.” Strain on higher Himalayas Several geologists are of the opinion that the Himalayan region is under tremendous strain because of climate change and there should not be any intervention in the higher Himalayan region, which witnessed a lot of glacial advancement in the past and has left behind a lot of sediment up to heights of 2,500 m. Dr Juyal said: “In our language we say it is not only sediment limited but transport limited. In a paper titled “Glacier changes and associated climate drivers for the last three decades, Nanda Devi Region, Central Himalaya,” jointly authored by six scientists including Dr Dobhal and Manish Mehta of the WIHG, eight glaciers were studied to measure their temporal and spatial variability towards climate change. The Nanda Devi group of glaciers fall within the upper Rishi Ganga catchment that is dominated by “Higher Himalayan rugged topography with high elevation ridges adjacent to deep glacial valleys”.