Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 8: As the relief and rescue operations are continuing in full swing in the tragedy-hit areas in Uttarakhand, the multi-agency rescue operation team have recovered 20 bodies till Monday evening while another about 225 people are still reported missing.
Of the 20 bodies recovered in Uttarakhand, only two have been identified so far, said an ITBP official.
The official said 39 persons including workers and senior officials of a construction company trapped in Tapovan tunnel.
172 NTPC personnel and 12 villagers are also missing.
The Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said of the people missing, 32 were believed to had been trapped in the first tunnel and 121 people from the second tunnel and rescue operations to recover people still trapped in the tunnels are underway.
A multi-agency rescue operation including — Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) — is in full swing to rescue people still stuck in the tunnels. The forces have cleared 90 meter stretch of debris in the big tunnel at Tapovan till now, with about 100 meters of clearing still left to do.
To take stock of the situation, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Monday visited Chamoli district. Speaking to media persons, Rawat said clearing operation would be completed during the day.
The chief minister said comprehensive analysis was being undertaken to find reasons of incident and build plan to avert future tragedy.
He said breaking of glacier seems to have caused the Chamoli tragedy and added that experts from DRDO, ISRO and other agencies being roped in.
Yesterday, Rawat had announced Rs 4 lakh financial assistance each for the families of those killed in the mishap.
The tragedy hit Uttarakhand after a portion of a glacier in Nandadevi region broke off triggering an avalanche and a deluge in the Alaknanda river system. The sudden flood in the middle of the day in the Dhauli Ganga, Rishi Ganga and Alaknanda rivers — all intricately linked tributaries of the Ganga — triggered widespread panic and large-scale devastation in the high mountain areas.
Two power projects – NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project and the Rishi Ganga Hydel Project – were extensively damaged with scores of labourers trapped in tunnels as the waters came rushing in.
Ration kits are being provided by the Uttarakhand government to those displaced from their homes, the CM informed. Asserting that priority is to save lives and rehabilitate displaced people, he said economic loss as a result of the tragedy will be ascertained in due course.
The Geological Survey of India has through remote sensing and multispectral data found 13 of 486 glacial lakes in Uttarakhand to be vulnerable. A glacial lake can breach causing outburst flood like the Chamoli floods on Sunday due to avalanche or landslip in its periphery, cloudburst in the catchment, a major quake and other geological factors, GSI’s Director-General Ranjit Rath said in New Delhi on Monday.
Rawat said on Twitter that the State government had released ₹20 crore for relief to the affected people.
A team of specialists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which reached Uttarakhand early on Monday morning, conducted an aerial survey of the areas in Chamoli district which were devastated by flash flood triggered by glacier burst yesterday. The team said that it has collected data which will be analysed to understand the reason behind the natural disaster.
“Our team did an aerial survey of the glacier where incident took place in Chamoli. Prima facie it looks like a hanging glacier broke away from the main glacier and came down in the narrow valley,” Dr LK Sinha, Director, Defence Geo-Informatics Research Establishment of the DRDO said.
“In the valley it formed a lake which burst later and caused the damage. The data is being analysed by our scientists in detail and if required, they would again go to get more details,” Dr Sinha further said.