We saw scary pictures emerging from the beautiful mountainous terrain of Uttarakhand on 7th February. A blocked tunnel from which people were being rescued, a torrential river in spate and the water gushing through a dam gate started emerging soon after a ‘glacier burst’ in the Chamoli was reported. A GLOF, or glacial lake outburst flood is thought to be the reason.
According to reports, a large chunk of a glacier could have broken off, leading to a flash flood close to Chamoli. This led to scary visuals such as these downstream in the mountainous region.
Experts are examining satellite images to determine what happened to cause flooding. A glacial burst and/or landslide causing largescale displacement possibly resulted in the catastrophic flood.
GLOF or glacial lake outburst flood is the term used to describe events such as these. However some have also said that there are no such glacial lakes in the area and the cause could be an avalanche.
#Uttarakhand and #Chamoli were soon trending along with frightening visuals of tumultuous swollen mountain rivers.
The sheer volume of water and silt and mud carried along by the river is scary to see.
People have died and many others are missing still.
The heavy deposit of silt and mud was responsible in largely blocking a tunnel and rescue operations were quickly underway.
This video of the Indo Tibetan Border Police rescuing a man was a positive visual emerging among the many scary ones.
While earlier largescale devastation was expected, the situation may not be as bad, particularly in the lower regions.
Rescue and relief teams from the IAF, ITBP and so on were quickly airborne and pressed into service.
There have also been reports of two under-construction dams being washed away by the destructive flow of water and debris.
India’s 9-year-old climate activist Licypriya Kangujam had this to say about the possible reasons behind the disaster.
Tourism and other human activity have spurred the development of transport projects, hydroelectric dams and more in the mountain state. Climate change is undeniably one of the reasons. There is the charge that human activities have endangered the delicate ecological balance in the region and exacerbated events such as the floods of 2013 as well as the recent glacier burst event. It comes down to the old argument: should development come at the cost of destroying the ecological balance of a region? Maybe those who suffer the most as a result of an event like the flash flood would be the best people to give an answer?
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