Tag: Chamoli district

  • Movement nonetheless occurring in Chamoli: research

    A consortium of worldwide glacier and permafrost scientists have discovered by way of excessive decision satellite tv for pc imagery indications that mass motion actions are nonetheless occurring within the zone masking Chamoli in Uttarakhand, which just lately witnessed flash floods.
    The research by Gaphaz or the Glacier and Permafrost Hazards in Mountains — a scientific standing group of the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences and the International Permafrost Association — has additionally discovered that one other slope failure and avalanche could be crucial for individuals and infrastructure downstream, near the riverbed.
    “Large volumes of fabric have been eroded and deposited alongside the river channel. In mixture with water from rivers, snow soften, heavy (monsoon) rainfall or overflow of momentary lakes, particles flows could be triggered from these depositions. Erosion by the flood most likely has undercut some slopes, and this instability might have an effect on roads, villages and different infrastructure situated far above the river mattress,’’ says the preliminary research exploring the causes behind the Chamoli incident, including that additional investigation is required.
    On February 7, a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke away and induced an avalanche within the Alaknanda river system (Dhauli Ganga, Rishi Ganga and Alaknanda rivers). These floods washed away hydroelectric stations and left a lot of labourers trapped, lots of them feared useless.
    While scientists are nonetheless investigating the reason for the floods, early findings reveal {that a} main rock/ice avalanche indifferent itself at an elevation of about 5,600 m above sea stage from a north dealing with slope northeast of Trisul Peak within the Nanda Devi mountain. An evaluation of satellite tv for pc imagery from the realm exhibits that this occasion occurred as a result of failure deep inside the bedrock of the mountain, and the glacier ice was likely entrained with the collapsing block of bedrock.

    The research has dominated out the potential for a glacier lake outburst flood as effectively and in addition stated momentary lakes shaped as a result of damming are unlikely to have had a direct have an effect on on the flooding.
    The Gaphaz report finds that the depth of the failure airplane is greater than 100 m under floor, the place no seasonal temperature variations are anticipated. The zone is in permafrost situations, that means floor temperatures are perennially under zero. There is theory that warmth fluxes from the hotter south face of the mountain to the colder north face, the place the avalanche indifferent, might have warmed the frozen bedrock, resulting in the avalanche.
    Furthermore, liquid water from snow and ice melting might have infiltrated the bedrock in cleft techniques and destabilised the rock. “However, the initiation of the failure in addition to the eventual set off of the avalanche stay unclear. It can be necessary to notice that unstable geological configuration and steep topography can, by itself, be a enough driver of huge slope failures,’’ says the research.

  • Chamoli flash flood — District admn to insurance coverage agency: Halt settlement of energy mission firm claims

    THE CHAMOLI district administration in Uttarakhand has written to insurance coverage agency New India Assurance to right away cease settlement of claims that Rishi Ganga Power Project firm has filed to get better the loss it suffered in final month’s flash flood.
    According to a launch from the Chamoli district administration, Rishi Ganga Power Project has up to now not taken any motion to offer compensation to the households of these died or have gone lacking from its mission web site. It stated the corporate was additionally not offering cooperation within the aid and rescue operation on the web site.
    The flash flood in Rishi Ganga river washed away the hydro energy mission infrastructure in Raini village on February 7. It additionally broken the NTPC’s hydro energy mission over Dhauli Ganga river in Tapovan space of Joshimath tehsil.
    According to the discharge, District Magistrate Swati S Bhadauriya has written to Deputy General Manager of New India Assurance, informing in regards to the lack of life on the mission web site. “Several people are still missing and search operation is continuing. But people of the power project are not providing any cooperation after the incident. The power project company has done nothing for disposal of claims…. Due to this (delay), there is dissatisfaction among the affected people against the power project,” it stated.
    Bhadauriya advised The Indian Express that the Rishi Ganga Power Project firm has claimed Rs 112 crore in insurance coverage from New India Assurance, and if the declare is settled it gained’t face any loss. “The company should get its insurance claim only after it settles the claims of the affected families. A request has been made to New India Assurance company in this regard,” Bhadauriya stated.

    However, Bhadauriya stated no affected household has approached the administration for settlement of claims.
    About participation within the rescue operation, Bhadauriya stated, “They were supposed to assist in rescue and relief operation. But their main support will be if they give compensation package to people missing from their project site.”
    According to the Chamoli administration, 55 individuals went lacking within the flash flood from Raini village space; 43 of them had been from the hydro energy mission web site.

  • Behind hydel challenge washed away, a troubled path to accident in 2011

    ON INDEPENDENCE Day in 2011, Rakesh Mehra, the proprietor of Ludhiana-based Rajit Paints Group, drove as much as Chamoli in Uttarakhand to inaugurate the trial run of a unit of his mini-hydel challenge on Rishi Ganga river adjoining to the Nandadevi biosphere reserve. At the challenge web site, a boulder slid overhead and fell on him.
    “Imagine the odds of a single, dislodged boulder killing him while nobody standing around received a scratch. In hindsight, was it just a freak incident or an early warning? Today, so many are feared dead and everything has been washed away,” says Kolkata-based realtor Kamal Surana who had offered the ability challenge to Mehra in 2006.
    Between the 2011 boulder slide that killed Mehra and the 2021 glacier burst that buried your complete challenge together with a number of employees, the Rishi Ganga mini-hydel plant suffered extreme injury within the floods of June 2013 and a cloud burst on the web site in August 2016.

    In 2019, the area people sought judicial treatment to cease “rampant blasting, reckless dumping of muck next to the riverbed, and tree felling” that allegedly continued until mid-2020, destabilising the slopes and blocking the river channel.
    The flash flood Sunday was the newest scar within the challenge’s again story that started in 1996 when Rishi Ganga Power Corporation Ltd was arrange by Surana in Kolkata. The challenge — it was cleared in 2000 — has modified fingers twice since then. “I purchased the land and got all clearances from the Mayawati government in UP and the Centre. It was before the state of Uttarakhand came to be,” remembers Surana.
    Surana had no historical past or expertise of growing energy vegetation, and the challenge web site was precariously near one among India’s most pristine high-altitude landscapes and a UNESCO world heritage web site. And but, because it was a mini-hydel challenge, it was exempt from environmental influence evaluation.
    But the challenge didn’t take off for years. “I had the loan sanctioned for the project. But setbacks happen in businesses, and in life. So I passed it on to the Mehras of Ludhiana,” says Surana. He wouldn’t specify how Mehra got here into the image, besides to say that it occurred in a “world much smaller than we think”.
    Like Surana, Mehra of Rajit Paints had no background in energy plant growth. But he secured loans totalling Rs 39 crore from Punjab National Bank by 2008 and launched into the challenge.
    “Initially, it was meant to be a 8.25 MW project but Mehra enhanced the capacity to 13.2 MW for 21 years. The plant was almost ready when Mehra died at the site in 2011. Then the company apparently ran into trouble,” says Jitendra Singh, who surveyed the plant for licensed emission discount credit below the clear growth mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in 2010.

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    Mehra’s demise reportedly triggered a dispute in his prolonged household over the management of his companies. By 2013, the dues to PNB had swelled to Rs 66 crore. The financial institution categorized it as NPA in February 2016. Months later, a extreme cloud burst hit the plant, additional lowering probabilities of restoration. The matter moved to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), and Delhi-based Kundan Group took over the challenge in December 2018.
    As work resumed, residents of Raini village, the closest settlement and web site of the Chipko motion within the Nineteen Seventies, complained of reckless development practices. Hearing a PIL, the Uttarakhand High Court issued notices to the Central and state governments in May 2019.
    “We also went to the National Green Tribunal but did not get any relief. They formed committees with the same local officials who were indifferent to our plight. When these committees came for inspection, they did not even call us. The company continued with regular blasting till mid-2020,” says Sangram Singh Rawat, a former sarpanch of Raini.
    The firm, nevertheless, denies the fees. “There are vested interests behind the litigation. We were not involved in blasting, muck dumping, etc., as we only did major repairs of damage caused by floods, besides certain modifications, upgradation and innovations,” says a Kundan Group spokesperson.
    According to the spokesperson, the challenge has now suffered damages value Rs 125-150 crore and the corporate will present training to the kids of the lifeless or lacking plant employees.
    There isn’t any phrase on rebuilding but. “The entire plant is destroyed. The rebuilding of the plant shall be ascertained based out of various factors,” says the spokesperson.
    Rawat, the previous sarpanch, needs firms and buyers, if not the federal government, to “learn their lessons” a minimum of now. “How many more landslides, floods and deaths will it take? How much more destruction?” he says.

    Says Surana: “Policies are decided by governments. But certainly there are heavy risks in putting money and projects in such fragile, unpredictable areas.”
    Does he really feel relieved that circumstances made him pull out? “As they say, whatever the almighty does, is for good. But I had plans to settle there after retiring from business. Such a beautiful place. I remember those villagers. Those lovely people trusted me. It’s so tragic what all has happened.”

  • Uttarakhand flash flood: Raini counts its lifeless, no street hyperlink for 13 villages to China border

    AS DEBRIS and slush have been cleared from the Rishi Ganga energy plant web site close to Raini village, which bore the brunt of the flash flood in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, 4 our bodies and the stays of a fifth have been recovered Tuesday.
    It was a grim reminder of the deluge that destroyed the plant two days in the past.
    The space the place a water tank and a residential block stood was fully flattened, and a suspension bridge washed away, leaving 13 villages until the China border inaccessible by street. And, fears that one other flash flood might hit the world continued to maintain residents on tenterhooks.

    Through Monday evening, nationwide and state catastrophe reduction forces and Border Road Organisation (BRO) personnel labored to clear a 100-metre path from the gate of Raini, the house of the Chipko motion within the Nineteen Seventies, to the place the plant was positioned.
    “We had to stop for a while because we got inputs that there was a possibility of another avalanche. We started again on Monday evening and worked through the night. We have cleared a large rubble path. So far, we have found four bodies, and some remains,” mentioned Major Parashurama, who’s with the BRO and coordinating operations on the web site.
    “We are not going very fast because we think there could be around 20-30 bodies under the rubble here. According to our initial reports, there were 20-25 people at the gate, and they were all submerged. We expect to find another 30-35 bodies further down where two three-storey residential buildings stood. The overall estimate is around 70 bodies at this site,” he mentioned.
    According to senior NDRF officers, there’s little or no likelihood of discovering survivors.

    We are proud to announce that Jharkhand CM @HemantSorenJMM would be the Chief Guest of the dialogue ‘Decoding India’s inner migration’ on February 12 at 2pm.
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    “The water and slush reached up to the villages located at a height. The power plant was much lower. We don’t think anyone down there is still alive. The recovery of bodies and clearance can take a few weeks. A lot of people are also coming in, looking for their relatives,” mentioned Mohsen Shahidi, DIG, NDRF.
    The SDRF, in the meantime, is establishing a zipline between the villages of Raini and Raini Palli, which lies throughout the bridge that was destroyed.
    “The line can be used if someone needs to be sent rations or medicines urgently. There is air support at present, but we can use the zipline in case there is an emergency. A relief camp is being set up at Raini Palli,” mentioned Navneet Singh, an SDRF official.
    The state pressure can be coordinating a recce by drones. Drones with a capability to fly for half-hour and report footage have been despatched upstream to see if there was any lake formation that might threaten rescuers. Officials mentioned that no such formation has been detected to date.
    By Tuesday night, BRO officers had cleared a number of metres of slush with not less than 4 excavators on the web site.
    “We will continue working into the night. But reconnecting the villages is the priority. We are looking at different ways to do this, including a temporary suspension bridge,” mentioned a senior BRO official on the spot.The state pressure can be coordinating a recce by drones. Drones with a capability to fly for half-hour and report footage have been despatched upstream to see if there was any lake formation that might threaten rescuers. Officials mentioned that no such formation has been detected to date.
    By Tuesday night, BRO officers had cleared a number of metres of slush with not less than 4 excavators on the web site.

    “We will continue working into the night. But reconnecting the villages is the priority. We are looking at different ways to do this, including a temporary suspension bridge,” mentioned a senior BRO official on the spot.

  • ‘Nayi Zindagi’: Dramatic rescue of man from tunnel by ITBP in Uttarakhand | Watch

    Image Source : PTI ITBP personnel perform search and rescue operation at Tapovan Tunnel, after a glacier broke off in Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district inflicting an enormous flood within the Dhauli Ganga river.
    Uttarakhand on Sunday witnessed a serious catastrophe after a glacier go off Joshimath area in Chamoli district, inflicting flash floods and heavy injury to life and property. As per experiences, round 150 labourers are feared useless after the glacier break whereas rescue operations are underway.

    A group of ITBP personnel rescued have rescued 16 individuals who have been trapped in a tunnel after flash floods hit the Tapovan area.

    Meanwhile, a video has surfaced exhibiting a second of reduction when a type of 16 individuals who have been trapped was rescued by an ITBP group.

    The man took a sigh of reduction and thanked ITBP personnel who was rescued from the tunnel amid chants like ”apna bhai agaya… bale bale… khush hogaya yaar… nayi zindagi.” (Our brother has come… joyous thanks… he’s comfortable now… acquired a brand new life). 16 staff have been rescued from a tunnel of Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel mission.

    Indo-Tibetan Border Police, State Disaster Response Force and different businesses have been finishing up rescue operations on a conflict footing. “Sixteen labourers have been rescued from the tunnel,” an official mentioned.

    Part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off at Joshimath on Sunday, main to an enormous flood within the Dhauli Ganga river and bringing again reminiscences of the 2013 deluge within the hill state.

    Over 150 labourers working at an influence mission in Tapovan-Reni, which was swept away utterly, have been feared useless, an Indo Tibetan Border Police spokesperson mentioned whereas quoting the project-in cost.

    Chamoli catastrophe brings again 2013 Uttarakhand tragedy nightmare

    In June 2013, a multi-day cloudburst centred on Uttarakhand brought about devastating floods and landslides. According to the state authorities, greater than 5,700 folks have been presumed useless within the catastrophe.

    As bridges and roads have been destroyed greater than three lakh folks have been trapped within the valleys resulting in the Char Dham pilgrimage websites.

    (With inputs from PTI)

    IN PICS | Uttarakhand glacier burst triggers large flood

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