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Tag: Uttarakhand flash floods

  • House panel evaluations preparedness to deal with floods

    By: Express News Service Written by New Delhi | New Delhi |
    Updated: March 24, 2021 2:05:43 am
    The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources has began a number of elements of the nation’s flood administration system, together with preparedness to deal with floods, together with flash floods, cloudbursts, glacier outbursts and avalanches.
    The committee, headed by BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, held its first assembly on the difficulty on Tuesday.
    According to sources, the panel wished to know from officers — of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) — about classes learnt from the 2013 Uttarakhand catastrophe. “The members asked the officials what lessons have been learned from the 2013 Uttarakhand disaster and how has it helped in the recent Chamoli disaster,” mentioned a supply.
    Officials of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) additionally attended the assembly, sources mentioned. The NDRF officers knowledgeable the committee {that a} separate battalion to cope with pure disasters in hilly areas is ready to be deputed in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

    The committee can also be inspecting “flood management in the country including international water treaties in the field of water resource management/flood control with particular reference to the treaty/agreement entered into with Nepal, China, Pakistan and Bhutan”.

  • Uttarakhand: Researchers arrive to examine synthetic lake over Rishiganga

    A group of researchers arrived in Pang village on Saturday to examine the factitious lake shaped over Rishiganga after the latest avalanche and gauge how massive a menace it poses to areas downstream.
    The group led by USAC Director MPS Bisht and consisting of 4 scientists every from the Geological Survey of India and Uttarakhand Space Application Centre will attempt to attain the lake on foot by Saturday night or Sunday.
    With roads within the space round Raini Gram Panchayat washed out within the latest flash flood and huge stretches was swamps, the group is being accompanied by a mountaineer from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and SDRF jawans to make sure their secure journey to the lake.

    First group to achieve at lake: Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) group reached murenda the place a pure lake is shaped after latest floods in #Chamoli, Uttarakhand. The group established the bottom camp, chosen location for Helipad. Another group with DRDO group to achieve quickly.#Himveers pic.twitter.com/JHldvqrW5F
    — ITBP (@ITBP_official) February 17, 2021
    “We will inspect the lake formed over Rishiganga by the huge volume of sludge that came from Rauthi stream due to the avalanche,” USAC Director Bisht instructed PTI.

    “We hope to reach Udiyari by the evening which is located above the lake. By Sunday, we may reach the lake to inspect it and take its geographical measurements. How big a threat the lake can pose to the population living downstream of Rishiganga is something that can be measured only by how much water it contains,” he mentioned.
    Sonographic gear from the Indian Navy are getting used to measure how a lot water is contained within the lake, he mentioned.

    Sonography specialists from Hyderabad are additionally anticipated to measure the quantity of water within the lake, Bisht mentioned.
    Bisht mentioned his group may even incorporate the findings of a DRDO group which has visited the lake into its evaluation.

  • Uttarakhand flash flood: Worker’s household finds severed limb at Raini plant website, and closure

    HER BROTHER enjoying within the snow within the hills of Uttarakhand will likely be a picture that may keep endlessly with Ritu Rani, 38, elder sister of Vicky Kumar, 32, who had video-called her after a trek to the Bhavishya Badri temple in Tapovan, only a day earlier than flash floods washed away the hydro energy undertaking’s institution workplace at Rishi Ganga on February 7.
    From Deoband in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, Vicky had reached the undertaking website in Raini village of Chamoli district on February 5. Two days after the flash flood, his proper hand – from elbow to wrist – was recovered from the particles. He was recognized by youthful brother Amit Kumar from burn marks on his 4 fingers.
    On receiving data that his brother was lacking, Amit Kumar reached Raini village on February 8. “The next day, I came to know that a body part and some other bodies had been recovered from the debris near the plant site. I was consoling the family of Rahul, a friend of Vicky, who too had died.”
    Along with different our bodies, Amit Kumar additionally checked the recovered hand on February 10, and recognized it to be his brother’s from the burn marks and the three-layer clothes – from a jacket to internal put on – over the arm.
    “He was hardworking. We worked in National Electricals, a company in Haridwar, and used to live in a rented accommodation with our family. He had put off his marriage having committed to building a pucca house for our parents in the village. He was saving money for that,” Amit Kumar instructed The Indian Express.

    Vicky’s hand is the one physique of the 22 recovered so removed from totally different places that has been recognized, mentioned Yogendra Singh, Sub Divisional Magistrate, Bageshwar. In all, 55 our bodies have been recovered together with three our bodies as we speak from the tunnel within the hydro energy undertaking website in Tapovan.
    The Chamoli district administration handed over the physique half to Amit Kumar on February 11 after extracting the DNA pattern, which was cremated close to Manoharpur, their ancestral village in Deoband the next day. The administration has referred to as his father Yashpal Singh, 68, and mom Rajesh Devi, 67, for DNA sampling to Joshimath.
    Saharanpur ADM (Finance) Vinod Kumar, who has been designated the nodal officer by Uttar Pradesh, to coordinate with the Uttarakhand administration to find these lacking from UP, mentioned DNA samples of Vicky’s dad and mom will likely be taken for affirmation in order that they will obtain compensation.
    Ankit Kumar, Assistant Manager, Human Resource, of Haridwar-based National Electricals, mentioned that 4 staff together with Vicky, Rahul, Sandeep and Deepak Kumar have been despatched for overhauling energy mills on the two undertaking websites. “First they had to work at a site in Nandprayag. Due to shortage of essentials there, they left for the Rishi Ganga power project site. Deepak managed to survive probably because he belongs to the hill area of Pauri Garhwal and understands the terrain. “The other three were from the plains. Sandeep is still missing. The company will provide all possible assistance to their families as per the norms,” Ankit Kumar mentioned.
    Vicky had joined the corporate a couple of years again however had left as a consequence of well being causes and rejoined about eight months again.

  • Uttarakhand catastrophe: Rescue groups begin widening gap in Tapovan tunnel to succeed in trapped folks

    Rescue groups on Saturday started widening a gap drilled into an strategy tunnel on the way in which to the attainable location of over 30 folks trapped inside a sludge-choked tunnel of the NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel mission after a flash flood ravaged the world on Sunday.
    “We are working beneath a three-pronged technique to succeed in to these trapped within the tunnel. The gap we drilled yesterday is being widened to at least one toes in order to succeed in a digital camera and a pipe contained in the silt flushing tunnel the place the trapped are stated to be situated, General Manager of the NTPC mission, R P Ahirwal, instructed PTI.

    A gap with a diameter of 1 toes will assist ship in a digital camera to determine their location and a pipe to flush out amassed water from the tunnel, Ahirwal stated.
    The different two elements of the technique are clearing the desilting basin of the NTPC barrage by way of which muck is continually flowing into the tunnels and restoring the stream of the Dhauliganga to the appropriate which has tilted to the left after the flash flood hampering the sludge clearing operation, he stated.
    Describing the rescue of individuals as a precedence, he stated the NTPC has put greater than 100 of its scientists on the job.
    When requested whether or not an try is also made to ship rescue personnel to the attainable location of these trapped contained in the tunnel by way of the outlet, the GM stated it is going to have to be widened additional for that and shall be accomplished if the necessity arises.

    “More than 100 of our scientists are on the job. They are devising strategies and having them implemented,” Ahirwal stated.
    He stated all assets and mechanical tools required for the operations can be found on the mission web site.
    However, citing the situations contained in the tunnel, he stated, “We can operate only with a few machines at a time. Rest of them have to be kept on standby because our strategy is to keep the operations underway round the clock.”
    If for some cause an tools stops working, there are options on the standby to make sure that the operations don’t cease, he stated.
    He stated many skilled employees of the mission went lacking within the calamity and people placed on the job are new folks however nonetheless they’re working with complete dedication.
    Talking in regards to the greatest problem being confronted by the rescue staff, the NTPC official stated, “The rescue personnel are going to the tunnel where the men are likely to be trapped via HCC Adit where muck is constantly coming down from the NTPC barrage and its desilting basin to hamper the rescue efforts. The water of Dhauliganga too is coming into our tunnels through the desilting basin as it has tilted to the left after the avalanche.”
    “Hence, restoring the flow of the Dhauliganga to the right is a big part of our strategy,” Ahirwar stated. The sludge choked contours and conduits of the barrage’s desilting basin can be eliminated extra successfully provided that the stream is restored again to its earlier place.

    The work on restoring the stream of Dhauliganga has begun already with the assistance of heavy machines, he stated. So far, 38 our bodies have been recovered from the affected areas whereas 166 are nonetheless lacking.
    DIG Nilesh Anand Bharne stated 11 of the lifeless have been recognized. Eighteen physique elements had additionally been recovered from the flood-hit areas, of which 10 have been cremated after taking their DNA samples to date, he stated.

    The State Emergency Operation Centre right here stated scientists of the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing throughout an aerial survey of the Rishiganga discovered that the glacial lake shaped because of the avalanche over it has begun to launch water which reduces probabilities of its breaching or inflicting a contemporary flash flood.
    The lake which has shaped over the Rishiganga after the flashflood had elevated the priority of consultants on Friday.

  • Uttarakhand catastrophe: ISRO satellite tv for pc photographs present epicenter of glacier burst

    Image Source : ISRO  A sequence of photographs captured by CARTOSAT-3 satellite tv for pc reveals how a heavy mass of rock and soil was displaced following a landslide on the Trishul Peak. 
    As specialists and scientists proceed to debate the explanations behind the Uttarakhand pure catastrophe that has to date claimed 35 lives and over 200 are nonetheless lacking, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched images of the epicenter of the glacier burst. 

    The photographs launched by the ISRO present the precise web site of the snow avalanche which later triggered catastrophic flash floods within the Rishi Ganga and Dhauli Ganga river catchment areas on Sunday, February 7.   

    The sudden deluge not solely wreaked havoc in a number of villages throughout the Chamoli district but in addition inflicted giant scale harm to energy crops in Raini and Tapovan areas. 

    The sequence of photographs captured by CARTOSAT-3 satellite tv for pc reveals how a heavy mass of rock and soil was displaced following a landslide on the Trishul Peak. The proof of snow avalanche that befell on the web site was additionally clearly seen. 

    ALSO READ: Rescuers race in opposition to time to find 35 trapped employees, drilling operations underway at Tapovan tunnel

    A multi-agency rescue operation is underway at Tapovan tunnel since February 7 to rescue over 30 individuals believed to be trapped inside. 

    “Rescue operation to evacuate these individuals is happening a conflict footing and all-out efforts are being made for looking lacking individuals.

    Image Source : ISROThe satellite tv for pc photographs additionally present the extent of harm the flash flood induced at two energy crops.

    “I assure the House that the Centre is extending all possible assistance to the state government for relief and rescue work. The Central government is working in close coordination with the state and all necessary steps, which are considered appropriate, are being taken,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah had mentioned in Rajya Sabha earlier this week. 

    Latest India News

  • Uttarakhand flash flood: Cop’s physique washed up 110 km away, at ancestors’ ghat

    On Sunday, after the flash flood hit the Rishi Ganga energy mission web site in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, Manoj Chaudhary, 42, a head constable with the Uttarakhand Police, was amongst these reported lacking. A day later, his physique was recovered 110 km away, from a ghat close to the confluence of the Alaknanda and Pindar rivers in Karnaprayag, the place his ancestral village is positioned.
    “This is the very ghat where all our ancestors were cremated. The ghat is very close to our ancestral village Kanaudi. Ittefaq hai. Magar yeh to upar wale ki kripra rahi ki unki body apne purvajon ke ghat par pahunch kar ruk gai (It’s a coincidence, but it’s God’s grace that his body found its way to the ghat of our ancestors),” mentioned Anil Chaudhary, Manoj’s elder brother. On Tuesday, Manoj was cremated on the ghat with state honours.
    The Rishi Ganga river meets Dhauli Ganga, which additional downstream meets the Alaknanda.
    Chaudhary, who joined the Uttar Pradesh Police about 20 years again, opted to remain on within the hills when Uttarakhand turned a separate state. Until mid-January, he was on the police strains in Gopeshwar and was deployed on the Rishi Ganga energy mission web site solely 15 days earlier than the flash flood.
    “I got a call from the police informing me that Manoj and another policeman were missing from the Rishi Ganga site. I reached the spot and his colleagues told me the flood had washed his away. I was returning home, when I got photographs of four bodies recovered at Karnaprayag. Manoj was one them,” mentioned Anil, including that he hopes his sister-in-law Seema, a graduate, will get a authorities job on compassionate grounds.

    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.
    Register right here to affix: https://t.co/ngDRKfgS9T pic.twitter.com/7DLIk0HZju
    — The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) February 9, 2021
    Constable Suresh Bhandari of Dehradun, who was on responsibility with Manoj and two others, constable Balbir Singh Gariya (58) and constable Deepraj, mentioned, “Deepraj and I were at the main gate and Manoj and Balbir were in the rooms. I heard a whistling sound from Raini village and in a few seconds, a cloud of dust was in front of us. Deepraj and I started running up towards the road. I tried to call out to Balbir and Manoj, but they were probably stuck.”

    Constable Deepraj, 41, mentioned, “Balbir’s body was found near the gate, which means that he probably tried to escape but failed to reach a higher place.”
    Uttarakhand police chief spokesperson Nilesh Anand Bharney mentioned the households of the deceased policemen will probably be compensated as per authorities guidelines.

  • ‘…his telephone nonetheless rings’: Kin of staff lacking from Rishiganga undertaking await a miracle

    Image Source : PTI Flash floods wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on February 7.
    For the final three days, members of the family of round 40 staff lacking from the Rishiganga hydel undertaking website go to the rescue website every day hoping for a miracle and listen to some ‘excellent news’ about their pricey ones. With ache and agony writ giant on their face, the members of the family blame the authorities for not doing sufficient to hint the lacking folks. 
    A multi-agency rescue work, involving groups from Army, NDRF, SDRF, is underway since Sunday, February 7, when the sudden flood within the Alaknanda river system wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand. However, kin of these lacking are usually not glad.
    “It is four days since the tragedy occurred but all the focus is on restoring connectivity. Rescuing the missing people does not seem to be the priority,” alleged a person from Punjab, whose brother Jugal labored on the Rishiganga hydel undertaking.
    EXCLUSIVE: It’s difficult, however hope to rescue all caught inside Tapovan tunnel, says CM Rawat
    “Jugal’s phone rings when his number is dialed,” he instructed information company PTI.
    Image Source : PTIRescue work to drag out staff caught inside Tapovan tunnel is underway for the final three days.

    The loss of life toll within the catastrophe was 32 with six extra our bodies being recovered throughout the day, officers had stated as a number of companies raced in opposition to time to achieve the employees trapped inside a tunnel on the energy undertaking website and 174 folks remained lacking.
    The lacking folks embrace these working at NTPC’s 480-MW Tapovan-Vishnugad undertaking and the 13.2-MW Rishiganga Hydel Project and villagers whose houses close by had been washed away.
    ALSO READ: Collapse of rock mass weakened on account of freezing could have precipitated Uttarakhand flash floods: Scientists
    Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Rawat has acknowledged that the rescue work is without doubt one of the most difficult the world has seen however stated he was hopeful that everybody contained in the tunnel could be pulled out alive.
    Rawat instructed India TV that rescue groups are preventing opposed circumstances contained in the tunnel. “There is mud flowing inside the tunnel from the other side as the teams keep clearing the way. But we are hopeful of reaching those inside the tunned soon,” Rawat stated. 

     
    Latest India News

  • Uttarakhand flashflood: Power plant official lacking, his son waits – with hope

    EACH TIME somebody talked about that one other physique has been pulled out of the particles, Salik Zargar pushed previous officers engaged within the rescue and reduction operations to examine if it was his lacking father. Each time, the physique was that of another person and the 24-year-old would return relieved, but anxious.
    Salik mentioned he needed to imagine that there was nonetheless an opportunity that his father, Basharat Zargar (52), was alive.
    At Raini village, round 8 km forward of Tapovan, lies the Rishiganga Power Plant. Like at Tapovan, many working on the plant and some residents of the villages round are lacking. However, officers on the web site say they don’t seem to be in search of survivors anymore.
    Salik, a scholar at a Noida college, and his uncle Shabir Zargar, who lives in Srinagar, reached the village after efforts to contact Basharat over the phone failed – after the flood hit the realm on February 7.

    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.
    Register right here to hitch: https://t.co/ngDRKfgS9T pic.twitter.com/7DLIk0HZju
    — The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) February 9, 2021
    Basharat had been working with the Kundan Group, which owns the now destroyed Rishiganga Power Project, for greater than a 12 months, mentioned Shabir. In his capability as the final supervisor of the challenge, Basharat labored from Delhi however would usually go to the plant right here.
    “The plant was undergoing maintenance and was shut but a lot of people were here because machine maintenance was underway. I spoke to Basharat at 10.13 am on Sunday when he asked if everything was fine at home. I told him I was busy and would call back in 15-20 minutes. When I called at 10.35 am, his phone was switched off. An acquaintance called him around 10.30 and could barely hear his voice once before everything went silent,” mentioned Shabir, including that they are going to be staying right here for 2 or three extra days.
    Basharat’s household mentioned nobody from the Kundan Group has contacted them up to now. “We came here after seeing the videos. The least the company could have done was to tell us,” mentioned Shabir.
    Attempts to achieve Kundan Group representatives had been unsuccessful.

    Bhavan Rana, 32, the sarpanch of Raini village, mentioned two individuals from the village, together with his aunt, had been lacking since Sunday. “From the nearby village as well, four or five people have gone missing. Many of them were near the river when the slush and water came. We have no hope,” he mentioned.
    The worry of one thing comparable taking place once more is rife within the space and, in consequence, individuals are sleeping in greater reaches as a substitute of their properties.
    “This will continue for a couple of days, at least. We move up around 7 pm because everyone is scared that there will be another flood and this time we will not be saved,” he mentioned.
    Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday knowledgeable the Rajya Sabha of the flash flood scenario in Uttarakhand saying as of seven pm on Monday, 20 individuals had been killed and 6 injured with an additional 197, together with 12 villagers, lacking after the deluge. He mentioned that on February 7, a landslide triggered a “snow avalanche” overlaying roughly 14 sq. kilometers, thereby inflicting a flash flood in Chamoli district. The excellent news nonetheless, Shah mentioned, was that there was no hazard of downstream flooding and the rise in water stage had been contained. —ENS, Delhi

  • Collapse of rock mass weakened because of freezing could have prompted Uttarakhand flash floods: Scientists

    Image Source : PTI A car caught within the particles on the website of the Tapovan hydel venture as rescue works undeway, a day after a glacier broke off in Joshimath inflicting huge flood in Dhauli Ganga River, in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand
    A rock mass weakened because of years of freezing and thawing of snow could have led to the creation of a weak zone, triggering its collapse that resulted in flash floods in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday, preliminary observations by scientists of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) counsel.
    The crashing rock mass additionally introduced earth and lumps of snow with it. The friction could have resulted in heating, which may have prompted the floods, the observations counsel.
    Scientists from the institute performed a helicopter survey of the realm to search out clues as to what led to the lethal flash floods that swept all the things in its approach.
    So far, the flash floods have claimed 28 lives with round 170 folks nonetheless lacking. 
    Kalachand Sain, Director of the WIHG, stated the glaciers the place the incident occurred feed the Rishi Ganga river that in the end joins the Dhauli Ganga.

    “This area has a really steep gradient. Our observations counsel that the rock mass could have weakened because of freezing and thawing. This typically results in the event of a weak zone and fractures.
    “As the rock mass weakened, the glacier and snow came down crashing, it resulted in flash floods,” he stated.
    The steep slopes of the mountains within the area additional elevated the depth of the crash.
    Two groups of the WIHG comprising 5 glaciologists left for Joshimath on Monday to determine the rationale behind the incident.
    An institute beneath the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the WIHG research the Himalayan atmosphere and its geology. Sain stated an preliminary report may even be despatched to the DST. 
    Latest India News

  • Uttarakhand catastrophe: Three our bodies recovered from Rishiganga energy undertaking web site

    Three our bodies have been recovered from the Rishiganga energy undertaking web site in Raini village, Joshimath, on Tuesday.
    According to officers, the Kundan group, which runs the undertaking at web site, has supplied them with a listing of 44 individuals who had been on obligation on the plant on the time of the flash flood. Two police personnel had been additionally on the web site when the incident befell on Sunday morning.
    Villagers, nonetheless, say that there’s a probability that greater than 70 persons are caught underneath particles. “Around eight people from the nearby villages are missing. The water and sludge came with such force that we have no idea what to make of the disappearances,” stated Bhavan Rana, sarpanch of Raini village.
    Senior NDRF officers stated that work to clear the roads and the seek for lacking individuals will take no less than per week. The BRO, State and nationwide catastrophe aid forces, and police are assiting in rescue and aid work. The most important bridge that connects the Joshimath space to the villages nearer to the India-China border was destroyed within the flash floods. As a consequence 13 villages have been lower off by highway and requirements are being supplied to them by way of choppers.