It has been confirmed that at least 70 people have been killed by the flooding that took place last month after a glacier burst in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. Unfortunately, many other people still remain unaccounted for. Uttarakhand sits on the northern Indian border with Nepal and is a gateway to the Himalayas.
Videos released since the event have shown homes, vehicles and people being washed away by a huge torrent of water. One video even showed a hydro-power plant being destroyed.
The exact cause of the deadly flooding is as of yet not confirmed, though a few theories exist. One is that a large piece of the Nanda Devi Glacier broke free a few days earlier and released a huge amount of water that it had been previously blocking. Another is that the glacier broke away and triggered an avalanche that then crashed through a protective dam. An immediate definitive answer on the cause of the event is hampered by both the remote location and the sheer destruction caused to local transport links.
The finger is pointed at global warming for causing a situation in which the glacier was allowed to become so destabilised, that it shifted from its natural moorings.
Dr. Dan Shugar, a geoscientists with the University of Calgray, said that on first inspection:
"The glacier that we think collapsed is a very steep, hanging glacier. It is not a typical valley glacier, with low gradient/slope, that sometimes have lakes at the terminus. It descended a steep slope and likely disintegrated when it hit the valley floor."
A video tweeted by the Uttarakhand Police showed rescuers battling to drag trapped people to safety, they said:
"Every life matters, every hand helps! We carried out rescue operations in #Chamoli, Uttarakhand."
Every life matters, every hand helps!
— Uttarakhand Police (@uttarakhandcops) February 7, 2021
We carries out rescue operations in #Chamoli, Uttarakhand @Ashokkumarips pic.twitter.com/Dpzbm5EsJX
This is the worst natural disaster to hit Uttarakhand since the 2013 floods that killed at least 5,700 people and required 110,000 people to be evacuated from their homes. The rains were so heavy it was defined as a 'cloudburst', in which huge amounts of water is dropped in a very short space of time.
[h/t: CNN]
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