Uttarakhand why it happened

The vulnerability of the Himalayas is well known but unfortunately has not been given the importance it deserves. Stable Himalaya denotes ecological and economic stability elsewhere too.

Besides, there has not been any accountability fixed towards the ecosystem growth and its behaviour on a regular basis. This is true for the country as a whole. The same is the case with the economy. We do not know the current amount of resources in the country, especially water, soil, air and forest.

These have been arbitrarily discussed, but never presented collectively. For example, we have been seriously worried about the economic growth of the country, but do not know exactly where we stand ecologically.

No economy can be stable without a self-sustaining ecosystem and therefore, for any given country, a strong ecosystem is as important as the economy, if not more.

This one lesson the government and the people must learn. The writer is an environmentalist, green activist, and the founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation. The views expressed are personal. Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured both Houses that the Centre is taking every possible step to rescue people and bring back life to normalcy in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand following the destruction caused by the avalanche that occurred on Sunday.

She believes collective protests by children from all over the world for climate justice will bring about a positive change. Firstpost Conversations 9 Months S. And, as scientists prepared to travel to the site in the high mountains north of Chamoli to ascertain the cause of the incident , the scenario being most talked about was what glaciologists like to call a GLOF, or glacial lake outburst flood.

It is a reference to flooding caused downstream due to a breach in a glacial lake. Retreating glaciers, like several in the Himalayas, usually result in the formation of lakes at their tips, called proglacial lakes, often bound only by sediments and boulders. If the boundaries of these lakes are breached, it can lead to large amounts of water rushing down to nearby streams and rivers, gathering momentum on the way by picking up sediments, rocks and other material, and resulting in flooding downstream.

GLOF events are not unusual, but their impact depends on the size of the proglacial lake that burst, and location. The breach can be caused by several reasons — in this particular case, for instance, an avalanche was reported in the region two days ago. An avalanche is quite common, and there could have been one, but an avalanche on its own would not result in an increase in the flow of water in the river.

He said multiplicity of conditions have together created such a situation. In the initial phase, called the onset phase, monsoon hit Andaman and Kerala following the normal time and trend. Usually, monsoon sets in by June 1, while this time it arrived in the last week of May. It moved fast towards the north, without taking its characteristic break before hitting one region after the other.

Low pressure over east Rajasthan attracted south-westerly winds from the Arabian sea, laden with moisture. At the same time, easterly winds from Bay of Bengal came along the foothills of Himalayas. The westerlies also crossed Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, creating a trough. The mountains of the north created orographic effect it occurs when an air mass approaches a mountain range and is rapidly forced upward, causing any moisture to cool and fall as rains.

The officials said that once the monsoon has set in, it will continue for the entire season, which normally ends in late September.

Eyewitnesses describe how a sudden gush of water engulfed the centuries-old Kedarnath temple, and washed away everything in its vicinity in a matter of minutes.

Down to Earth spoke to Anil Kulkarni, glaciologist and distinguished visiting scientist, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, about the events that unfolded. In his initial analysis, Kulkarni found that a small lake formed briefly during the rains, eventually releasing a huge amount of water.

Excerpts from an interview: What exactly took place on the night of June 16? There was rainfall of mm in 24 hours before the flash flood of June 16 at Kedarnath.

The town and the glacier above are 3 km apart. As there is no automatic weather station there, the data has been collected from satellite. There is evidence that a small lake was formed during the rains above Kedarnath town.

The lake must have lasted for a short duration. It was a square hectare lake which contained 10 million litre of water. The water that collected in the lake came down along with the water from the glacier. The lake burst due to a breach in the blockade that formed its boundary. Coupled with heavy rain in the area, this caused flash floods. It is because of the lake that there was excessive stream run-off and a third channel was formed. He said he was accepting all the recommendations.

He spoke to his minister Prakash Javadekar and submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that the Ministry of Environment had accepted all the recommendations. She had supported him in the case that was being fought at the Supreme Court. So initially, the ministry accepts the recommendations but immediately it is opposed by the dams lobby and the state government. The case is still going on in court. So nothing happened about the recommendations we made.

We did not learn any lessons from Soon after that, since the visual images were very strong, there were court orders that there should be no construction within metre of the river bank, but that never happened. With the onset of climate change, what can we expect in the region with ongoing construction work?

You can expect many more disasters. We just had this rainfall in the first week of February, and there is the effect of this disaster over there. And on the national highway 58 from Rishikesh to Badrinath, there is a place called Totagathi which has been closed on and off since widening of the road started on that stretch.

And that had a landslide last week, on February 6. So, it is happening all the time. At this point, what would you caution against in context of such incidents in Uttarakhand? The first thing is that forests are absolutely critical to the wellbeing of mountain slopes. Forests need to be protected. Minimal tampering with the slopes, absolutely minimal. There are certain well identified stretches like there is this major earthquake fault called the main boundary thrust and another one called main central thrust.

These two are extremely sensitive and one should void fiddling around in these areas. Blasting is supposed to have been banned and yet it goes on. Share your perspective on this article with a post on ScrollStack, and send it to your followers. Contribute Now. Demonetisation caused Indians needless pain. Rescue operations underway in Chamoli district in Uttarakhand on Monday, February 8. Excerpts from the interview: What has caused the flooding in Uttarakhand?

This general view shows state-run NTPC hydropower project site damaged after a broken glacier caused a major river surge that swept away bridges and roads, near Joshimath in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, on February 7, Photo: AFP Could you please explain what makes the geography of Uttarakhand so fragile and vulnerable to such incidents?

It is the same sort of thing. Rescue operations underway at Tapovan Tunnel on Monday. Photo: PTI So with the numerous ongoing constructions, what do environmentalists anticipate in the region?