Uttarakhand floods: ‘Disasters manifest when we do some thing silly’

Uttarakhand floods: ‘Disasters manifest when we do some thing silly’

“Disasters occur while we do something stupid,” said Dr Ravi Chopra, a scientist and director of hub Network Garo People’s Science Institute in Uttarakhand, relating to the floods that struck Chamoli district on the morning of February 7.

Twenty-six human beings have died and at least a hundred and seventy people are nonetheless lacking. Rescue operations are still ongoing as 35 workers of the National Thermal Power Corporation continue to be trapped in a tunnel. The force of the floods caused the destruction of the Rishiganga Power Project and damaged the Tapovan electricity plant.

Initially, scientists stated numerous motives for the floods inclusive of glacial lake burst, cloud burst and climate alternate in the ecologically touchy country. While the investigations are still ongoing, Chopra stated that there was little proof to suggest the floods had been resulting from a glacial burst.

The floods have revived memories of a similar flooding that passed off in 2013 while a cloudburst over Kedarnath brought on flash floods which killed over 5,000 people.

Since 2002, Uttarakhand, wherein the Ganga originates, has been on a force to construct hydel energy projects. The nation, which currently produces 4,000 MW of hydel electricity from 98-extraordinary projects, has on the grounds that 2009 signed agreements to construct another 350 dams. The strength plant projects are located high up within the mountainous regions, diverting the waft of the streams and rivers passing through tunnels to mills to generate energy.

To add to that is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Char Dham Pariyojana, a motorway-constructing task that seeks to enhance road connectivity to 4 sacred Hindu shrines. In 2020, the Supreme Court dominated towards the huge-width highways the government aims to construct as a part of the task. By then, but, the venture had already brought on giant damage in the vicinity, as Scroll.In said: nearly 700 hectares of wooded area land were lost, and 47,043 timber felled within the place.

Chopra is familiar with the situation. After the 2013 floods, beneath the course of the Supreme Court, he was appointed as chairman of a committee to examine whether or not the hydroelectric energy tasks exacerbated the flooding. The committee’s document, which launched in 2014, explicitly recommended that no hydroelectric energy plants be built in paraglacial areas.

The committee’s warnings extra than six years back remain disregarded, he stated, including that we must expect extra such incidents if production maintains in tandem with weather trade.

Excerpts from the interview:

What has brought about the flooding in Uttarakhand?
To the high-quality of our know-how, on February 5 and 6, there was top sunshine and the clean snow and ice began to soften. The mass of fresh snow, ice and water started to move down a steep slope in a small mountain circulation called Trishuligad. That valley is full of rocks, boulders and as the mass moved downward, it accrued power and a whole lot of remember, strong remember. By the time it came down to the base which became the Rishi Ganga river, it had come to be an avalanche. It caused a lot of destruction as it hit the river.

When you have a mass like this, if it moves a barrier on the way it is able to generally damage that barrier. And every barrier that it smashes it gains more electricity, actions with more speed downstream, and picks up greater cloth from the mattress of the river.

So first it smashed into a bridge, then it hit the dam – Rishi Ganga task of thirteen megawatts – and then went into the Dhauli Ganga valley and there it hit the barrage of the Tapovan Vishnugad undertaking of 520 megawatts. Literally, inside seconds it destroyed that and moved downstream.

In the manner, it has also affected a small village called Peng at the banks of the Rishi Ganga. What I was advised by means of some scientists running there is that humans in Raini village and in Peng have misplaced a number of animals and farm animals, and a few houses may were swept away.

News reviews recommend it is a mixture of climate exchange, glacier burst and production in fragile regions. One report also advised it is able to be the glacial lake outburst flood phenomenon. What have you ever observed to this point?
These reviews got here out initially and were even publicised by way of the government of Uttarakhand. Scientists that I am in touch with have been pouring over Google Maps of that location and I assume that there may be little or no proof to signify that any of the glacial lakes may additionally have burst.