Himalayan lake floods in India have left 18 people dead and nearly 100 missing

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA (Reuters) – At least 18 people were killed and about 100 were missing on Thursday after heavy rains caused the banks of a glacial lake to overflow in the Himalayas in northeastern India, the worst such disaster in the region in more than a year. 50 years.

Lake Lonak in Sikkim state overflowed on Wednesday, causing major floods that authorities said affected the lives of 22,000 people. This is the latest deadly weather event in the mountains of South Asia attributed to climate change.

Sikkim saw 101 mm (4 inches) of rain in the first five days of October, more than double normal levels, leading to floods worse than the October 1968 floods in which an estimated 1,000 people were killed, the Meteorological Department said.

The administration has forecast heavy rains over the next three days in parts of Sikkim and neighboring states.

Local officials said the recent floods were exacerbated by water leaking from the state-run NHPC’s Teesta V dam. A government source told Reuters that four of the dam’s gates were washed away, and it was not clear why they were not opened in time.

As of Thursday evening, 98 people were missing, 17 of whom were army personnel, VP Pathak, the state’s chief secretary, told Reuters by phone.

14 bridges were washed away, hampering rescue operations already damaged by heavy rains. Pathak said 18 relief camps were opened on Thursday where food and medical aid are being provided.

Authorities in neighboring Bangladesh were placed on alert. An official with the state-run Water Development Board warned that five districts in the northern part of the country may be submerged as the level of the Teesta River, which enters Bangladesh below the Sikkim River, rises.

Tourists stranded

Prabhakar Rai, director of the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, said bad weather was hampering rescue operations and described the situation as “a bit bleak.”

“Due to bad weather conditions, we cannot provide air service to the northern part of the state,” Ray told Reuters.

“Roads have been damaged in various places, so communications are a big problem. Interruption of telephone communications is also a problem in the higher areas,” he said. Silt that accumulated in homes along the river bed also slowed down rescue work.

Rai said about 2,500 tourists were stranded in and around Chungthang town in Mangan district, about 100 kilometers north of Gangtok, the state capital, but they were in safe places and would be evacuated by air when the weather improved.

The state tourism department asked visitors planning trips to the scenic state to postpone their travel and said those stranded in the Mangan area would be evacuated starting Friday, depending on weather conditions.

“All tourists stranded in Lachung and Lachen districts are safe and nothing negative has been reported so far,” the warning said, referring to the two rivers that meet to form the Teesta River in Chungthang.

Video footage from news agency ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake, showed floodwaters pouring into built-up areas where several houses collapsed. Army bases and other facilities were damaged and vehicles were submerged.

Reuters photos showed earthmovers and rescue workers shoveling silt and clay to extract military vehicles buried on the banks of the river.

Satellite images showed that nearly two-thirds of the lake had been drained.

Fuel is scarce, and food is available

Sikkim, a small Buddhist state with a population of about 650,000 located in the mountains between Nepal, Bhutan and China, was cut off from Siliguri in neighboring West Bengal due to the collapse of the main highway.

Petrol and diesel have become scarce in the state capital, Gangtok, but food is easily available, MP JT Dongel told Reuters.

On Wednesday, a thunderstorm dropped a huge amount of rain within a short period on Lake Lunak, about 150 kilometers north of Gangtok near the border with China, triggering flash floods in the Teesta Valley.

Runoff from melting glaciers often collects in shallow lakes, obstructed by rocks and debris. The danger comes when the lake overflows, breaches its natural barrier, and sends a torrent of water rushing down the mountain valleys.

A 2020 report by India’s National Disaster Management Agency said glacial lakes are growing and pose a potential major risk to infrastructure and life downstream, as Himalayan glaciers melt due to climate change.

A study published in the journal Nature Communications in February assessed the number of people globally at risk from these floods for the first time, and found that more than half of the world’s nearly 15 million vulnerable people live in India, Pakistan, China and Africa. Peru.

India’s Himalayan region has seen heavy rains in the past few years that have triggered deadly landslides and flash floods, killing more than 500 people this year alone and damaging vital infrastructure, with scientists increasingly blaming global warming as a major factor.

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