On Sunday, a massive flash flood was reported from Uttarakhand after the water level in the Dhauliganga river rose suddenly due to the break down of a glacier near a power project at Raini village Tapovan area of Chamoli district. The flooding occurred due to cloudburst and the subsequent breaching of a dam construction site near Raini village which destroyed many river bankside houses in the area.
As the Uttarakhand state machinery was working on a search and rescue operations to trace the missing villagers and the construction workers, a section of armchair environmentalists descended on social media platforms to blame the government for carrying too much of developmental activities in the Himalayan state.
According to these self-proclaimed environmentalists and ecological experts, the construction of dams was the reason for the disaster that occurred in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday. The alleged ‘activists’, joining hands with the usual left-liberal media, put out misinformation about the nature of Uttarakhand disaster and held the government responsible for the same.
Dia Mirza, a former Bollywood entertainer who seems to have no idea about either natural hazards or disaster management, posted a series of tweets on her Twitter timeline blaming dams for the Chamoli disaster.
“Building too many dams in the Himalayas had led to this,” claimed yesteryear actress Dia Mirza.
As per Dia Mirza, Chamoli disaster resulted from ‘cutting trees, cutting into ‘her’ mountains, building dams combined with climate change’. Not just Dia Mirza, even left-liberals, Congress supporters and its troll embarked on Dia’s idea to blame ‘Dams’ for the Chamoli disaster.
In a tweet, Mrinal Pande, a senior troll-cum-journalist who formerly worked with the Congress party mouthpiece National Herald, requested the state government to stop promoting ‘environmentally vulnerable zone’ as a tourist destination and branding it as Dev Bhoomi.
Widening of roads, large water and power projects are endangering millions of human lives here, said Mrinal Pande.
Supriya Sharma, a ‘journalist’ working for far-left portal Scroll also tweeted a report that claimed that successive governments in Uttarakhand, from both BJP and Congress, have put pressure on the centre to keep infrastructures going. She claimed that it was through projects such as dams and highways, politicians made money in Uttarakhand.
Congress leader Satyajeet Tambe said that it was high time that we took global warming and dam construction seriously and treat our environment sensibly.
Contrary to the claims of environmental ‘experts’ that the Chamoli disaster was due to the construction of large dams in the eco-sensitive area, the disaster near a power project at Raini village in Tapovan area resulted due to a glacier outburst. As glacier outburst brings a lot of water downstream, it resulted in water level rise in the Dhauliganga river. There is no developmental activity near the glacier, which is not possible, and the glacier bust occurred due to natural reasons, no dams were responsible for it.
The floodwater destroyed the power project and several houses situated on the rivers’ banks, causing hundreds of causality. The situation could have been worse if not for the flood management operation that the Uttarakhand government undertook.
As soon as they realised that the flood would reach the downstream areas, the state government took effective states to control the water flow. The large dams and reservoirs such as the Tehri dam were used to avert a downstream disaster.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat took to Twitter to appraise the situation and said that they had to stop the flow from Tehri dam to facilitate the smooth passage of rising waters on the rivers Rishiganga and Alaknanda.
It is important to note that the affected under-construction dam is on Rishiganga near Raini village in Tapovan area. The excess water from Rishiganga will join Alaknanda rivers, thus increasing the intensity of the floods in the downstream. As the state government deviated the flow from the Tehri dam to accommodate the floodwater of Rishiganda, the intensity of the flood decreased.
It is in fact, the existing flood control system in the state through dams and the effective management of the floods saved the day for Uttarakhand.
However, the likes of Dia Mirza and other left-liberals, who does ‘activism’ on their social media platforms rather than on the ground, perhaps have limited understanding about flood control or natural disasters.
Uttarakhand Floods:
A massive flood has been reported from Uttarakhand after the water level in Dhauliganga river rose suddenly due to the break down of a glacier near a power project at Raini village in Tapovan area of Chamoli district.
More than 100-150 people may have been dead or severely injured due to the flash floods caused due to the breaking down of a glacier near a power project at Raini village in Tapovan area of Chamoli district.
Uttarakhand: Chamoli district magistrate has instructed officials to evacuate people living in villages on the bank of Dhauliganga river.
— ANI (@ANI) February 7, 2021
The district magistrate and the superintendent of police have left for the spot.
A glacier broke off near Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday, causing a massive flood in the Dhauliganga river and endangering the lives of people living along its banks. The authorities fear massive destruction for lives and damage to the properties.
The flooding occurred due to cloudburst and the subsequent breaching of a reservoir near Raini village that has destroyed many river bankside houses in the area.