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. We know about many of them, but it is possible that there is one that we do not know about.
The surprise is also because of timing — a possible reason for the sudden rush of water, like a cloudburst, is not expected at this time of the year.
Army personnel have been rescuing stranded tourists and pilgrims in Uttarakhand by foot. Air evacuation operations will start from June 21 Photograph: Indian Army. A bird's eye view of area around Govindghat in Uttarakhand. The army is working on laying a cable bridge Photograph: Indian Army. Portion of the road at Govindghat has been washed away Photograph: Indian Army.
For rescue and relief operations, at least army personnel have fanned across districts of Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh districts in Uttarakhand and some areas in Uttar Pradesh Photograph: Indian Army. Access to many areas is cut off because of roads and bridges getting washed away by floods Photograph: Indian Army. Army personnel evacuating pilgrims by foot en route to Kedarnath Photograph: Indian Army. More than pilgrims have been evacuated by foot, and housed at Joshimath and Dharchula Photograph: Indian Army.
Army personnel evacuated people across a rivulet by laying a temporary bridge made of wooden logs on rout Photograph: Indian Army. Heavy rains have washed away the road beyond the Pinder valley bridge Photograph: Kailash Devradi. The road connecting Pinderghati to Dehradun has been completely washed away in the rain Photograph: Razz Rautela. Uttarakhand experienced tremors measuring 3. No loss of life or property is reported. However, it spread panic among the people living in the flood- and landslide-ravaged areas from Rudrapur.
As many as 18 of the bodies recovered from Kedarnath were cremated Wednesday in a mass funeral. The bodies had started rotting. The Ministry of Home Affairs then wrote a letter to the state government, asking it to undertake cremation. DNA samples of the deceased have already been collected. Epidemic outbreak is reported from various places in Uttarakhand. Gaurigaon village near Gaurikund is the worst affected, where over 5, people took shelter. An estimated people died in the village because of starvation or disease, inform survivors.
Their bodies had been rotting for over a week in the village. Disease surveillance programme has started in Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi and Haridwar. A large number of patients were taken to Jolly Grant Hospital in Dehradun and authorities suspect that water sources near Guptkashi and Gaurigaon have been contaminated by rotting bodies.
Large number of diarrhoea cases have been reported from Alwalpur near Haridwar, Urwi near Uttarkashi and Chandrapuri near Rudraprayag. About a people are suffering from gastro-intestinal infections in Ramnagar village of Guptkashi.
In Bageswar, three houses were damaged after the base of the building cracked. Local people say heavy rains weakened the foundations which is mostly loose mud as water seeped into it and the houses collapsed. In Haldwani, even though shops and houses are built on higher land, changing river course is corroding the base of the hills on which the structure stand. Rains of the past three days caused three houses to topple into the river from Haldwani. Uttarakhand government has issued an alert following rise in the water level of the three rivers--Ramganga, Kaliganga and Goriganga.
Residents in Pithoragarh live in dread of the river levels rising again. They say many houses in the area were washed away by floods that occurred twice, once on June 16 and then again on June 22 when water overflowed from Milam glacial lake from Pithoragarh. About persons are said to be stuck in Darma valley in Dharchula in Pithoragarh district.
About tourists are stranded in Gunji after the road connecting to the place collapsed. Bad weather is coming in the way of rescue operations in Pithoragarh district. Munsiari, Madkot and Dharchula are the worst-affected areas. Army personnel are trying to reach people in interior areas on foot after chopper operations were halted because of inclement weather from Pithoragarh.
While many young and fit people stranded in villages managed to trek their way to safety, others were not so fortunate. A resident of Baram was reportedly killed while attempting to cross a large crater-like depression.
Another resident in Ralam was grievously injured when he fell into such a pit from Pithoragarh. There are reports of a disease outbreak in Milam and Martoli in Pithoragarh. These areas are completely cut off by landslides and flood from Pithoragarh. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has said that people missing after the calamity would be declared dead after a month.
Under normal circumstances, a person is declared dead only if she or he has been missing for seven years from Pithoragarh. People in many villages in Pithoragarh have gone without food for the past 10 days; the roads connecting their villages have collapsed.
Over a 1, people are said to be stranded in these villages from Pithoragarh. People of Dharchula, Pithoragarh district, near the Nepal border, claim that a glacial lake below the Milam glacier burst. Two rivers Kali Ganga and Gori Ganga originate from the glacier. Heavy rains made the glacial lake overflow, sending a lot of water down the rivers.
Several villages were washed away. Connectivity was affected, and no relief reached them for ten days. Harish Rawat, Union minister for water resources, visited Pithoragarh today. He spoke to locals, and promised compensation to those who have lost their land and homes.
An Indian Air Force helicopter carrying out rescue operations in Uttarakhand's flood-affected Guptkashi and Kedarnath crashed on Tuesday evening, killing twenty persons on board from Rudraprayag. The Uttarakhand state electricity board says it has restored electricity supply to Guptkashi, seven days after floods and landslides cut off power supply to the area. This would aid in relief and rescue operations because all stranded people rescued from Gaurikund and Kedarnath are first brought to Guptkashi, a major transit point for evacuation to safe areas from Rudraprayag.
The causualty in Uttarkashi town is relatively low because the residents here saw the disaster coming and evacuated to safer areas in time.
The Tilot bridge that connects Uttarkashi with Kedarnath collapsed and the water razed all the houses that were at the lower level from Uttarkashi. The Gangotri and Yamunotri highways are damaged at several places. These stretches were washed away by the river.
As one goes higher, roads are damaged because of landslide from Uttarkashi. Cycles are a better bet when roads are non-motorable. We took another cycle from him and went till Naitala, kept his cycle there before walking across the crater. This is how we reached Sainje. In Sainje the road has simply disappeared; only a yawning 20 ft crevice is visible. A tree is all that connects both sides of the road.
And beneath us is the raging river from Bhatwari. People living in the upper reaches now live in constant fear of landslides. With rains making a come back on Saturday, people in Bhatwari are bracing themselves for more landslides.
Some people say that they saw rocks falling from the mountain and say large cracks have developed in the mountains. The ground has split in many places on their fields. Between Bhatwari and Dharsil, people reported that fresh landslides could soon happen as the mountains have almost tilted from Bhatwari.
Air rescue operations in the upper reaches of Uttarakhand have come to a halt because of heavy rains. Flashfloods and landslides have damaged Uttarakhand's power infrastructure. Much of the relief and rescue operations is directed towards tourists and pilgrims. Officials who attended to some people in Agastyamuni village on route to Kedarnath from Rudraprayag say they have received to relief supplies to help residents approaching them for help from Rudraprayag.
As rescue operations progress, the death toll in Uttarakhand is shooting up. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna says that bodies have been recovered so far. Thousands of people are feared to have died. Local people say more bodies will emerge once the water level recedes from Rudraprayag. Politicians reaching Kedar valley are being received with jeers and anger. I hitch a ride with an MLA to Kedarnath. As we land, people come running towards us. They are given food but they look at it with distaste and request to be air-lifted.
There must be around a people there. They are assured that they would soon be rescued. The MLA gives a little speech how his party would ensure that these people reach home safely. Singh does not know where 12 of his family members are. The lanes in Kedar are filled with crumbled tin sheets and logs of wood.
The area stinks of rotting carcasses. Each survivor has a similar story to narrate about the horrors of the night when the area was hit by flash flood. Some of the visitors who had left before the floods on horses and ponies were turned back because of a strike declared by the union that provides the services to people who cannot return to base camp on foot, say survivors from Kedarnath.
Dehradun resident Jayprakash Semwal stuck in Gaurigaon says that hundred of dead bodies are scattered in the forests and if they are not removed soon, there is a fear of disease breakout from Rudraprayag. Near Silli village, 17 km from Rudraprayag, on way to Kedarnath, the river Mandakini, a tributary of the Ganga, has shifted course.
The river washed away all structures 20 m either side of the bank, say residents from Rudraprayag. In Tilwara and Sumari village, about 40 km from Rudraprayag, isolated crowds can be seen at several places.
Half of Sumari village is completely washed off and rest of the houses are tilted and damaged. They are not counted as damaged by government, which means they get no relief from Rudraprayag. After the floods, operation of Maneri Bhali hydroelectric power project I and II have been shut down.
The gates of projects are locked from Rudraprayag. Rescue teams are yet to reach an estimated 5, to 6, people who had escaped from Kedarnath valley into the nearby forests to escape the floods. They have received no food packets either from Rudraprayag. No aid has reached areas in Rudraprayag district like Chandrapuri and Agast Muni devastated by the floods.
People have begun to fall sick and an epidemic outbreak is feared from Rudraprayag. Major roads in Uttarakhand have been reconnected.
Government has decided to pay Rs 5, per affected household as general assistance but there have been complaints that the affected households are getting only Rs 2, from Rudraprayag. Bihar minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey who was rescued along with family members after being stranded for three days, on June 20, says that the death toll is likely to climb up to 20, from Rudraprayag.
The state infrastructure development commissioner, Rakesh Sharma, says the state has incurred damage worth Rs 50, crore. This includes Rs 11 crore worth government property, 10 roads, three iron bridges, 10 wooden bridges, three rural drinking water projects and 40 minor irrigation projects. Medical teams helping in the rescue operations consist of general physicians and surgeons only. A lot of survivors have bone injuries, but no orthopaedic treatment is available.
An analysis by CEEW in found that 85 per cent of districts in Uttarakhand were vulnerable to extreme flooding , while over the last decade, Kerala has become twice as prone to landslides as before.
The frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of these events has increased in recent decades, the CEEW said. Rainfall began in Kerala on 16 October and went on till 18 October, with the worst affected districts being Idukki and Kottayam. A second bout was scheduled on October, for which at least 11 districts have been issued a warning.
At the same time, there was another low pressure in the Bay of Bengal which was moving towards Odisha.
Winds blow inward toward these areas. This causes air to rise, producing clouds and condensation. A study by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology earlier this year found that from , the Arabian Sea saw a 52 per cent increase in the frequency of cyclones, which scientists attributed to higher sea surface temperatures.
Worsening the effects of heavy rainfall are fractured ecosystems that can no longer support the erratic downpour, which could contribute to the destruction of infrastructure, lives and livelihoods.
A western disturbance is a storm originating in the Mediterranean Sea, which then moves eastwards. The worst affected area was Kumaon. Western disturbances are most common during the winter months, said Dr R. Mohanty says there are three major ways in which states can help reduce damage from extreme weather events.
Second, states must also work on protecting their natural ecosystems to make sure they are not further degraded.
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