The breakoff of the Himalayan mountain glacier occurred near Joshimath in
Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday morning. A video shared by officials shows a wall of water surging into one of two dams and breaking it into pieces with little resistance before continuing to roar downstream.
The Rishiganga hydropower plant was destroyed, while the Dhauliganga hydropower was damaged, said Vivek Pandey, a spokesman for paramilitary Indo Tibetan Border Police. Both power plants are on the Alaknanda River which eventually flows into the Ganges River.
According to the
Associated Press, Pandey said at least 16 workers were trapped near a tunnel at the Dhauliganga project. Another 140 workers at the two plants are still missing and feared dead. At least 8-10 bodies have been recovered from the rivers so far.
The controversy around the Rishiganga power project
The
Financial Express is reporting that the massive disaster experienced in the Chamoli Uttarakhand region has been feared ever since the Rishiganga power project began.
In 2019, The private company behind the Rishiganga power project was taken to court by concerned citizens in the region who alleged the company was using unfair and environmentally hazardous practices in the project.
A study
published in 2019 - spanning 40 years of satellite observations across India, China, Nepal, and Bhutan, indicated that climate change is eating the Himalayas' glaciers. Researchers analyzed satellite images of some 650 glaciers spanning 2,000 kilometers from west to east. Many of the images came from declassified photographic images taken by the US spy satellites.
The study shows that "even glaciers in the highest mountains of the world are responding to global air temperature increases driven by the combustion of fossil fuels," said Joseph Shea, a glacial geographer at the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada, who was not involved in the study.
The Uttar Pradesh government has asked officials of all districts on the banks of the Ganga river to be on a high alert.
