The deluge in Uttarakhand, following an avalanche triggered by a glacier burst in Chamoli district, was a tragedy waiting to happen. The cumulative impact of the indiscriminate hydroelectric projects in the region has turned out to be environmentally damaging and unsustainable. This is a wake-up call for policymakers. The successive governments have been allowing unregulated infrastructure construction in order to cater to the booming tourism economy, thereby causing environmental degradation. Uttarakhand is a mountainous State predisposed to earthquakes, landslides, flash-floods, cloudbursts and avalanches, with the hilly terrain accounting for around 90% of its total geographical region. It has an exceptionally fragile landscape that is susceptible to natural calamities. The Sunday deluge has resulted in extensive damage to two hydel power projects and five bridges while hundreds of people are still missing. The reduced snowfall this winter in Uttarakhand may also have played a part in the glacier burst. While human activities profoundly affect the earth’s climate, the mountainous ecosystem is particularly sensitive and easily disrupted by variations in climate owing to its altitude and slope. Glacial lakes, which contain ice boulders or glacial sediment are not as stable as open lakes and can burst their banks. The devastating 2013 Kedarnath floods were the result of glacial lake outbursts in the region triggered by heavy rains. There are 2,000 glacial lakes and water bodies in the Himalayan region which contribute to rivers flowing across the country. The number of glaciers in the region has increased in the last five decades, indicating how severe glacier melting has been due to global warming.
The entire Hindu-Kush Himalayan region has emerged as a climate change hotspot over the years. A 2019 study spanning 40 years of satellite observations across India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, had warned that Himalayan glaciers have been melting twice as fast since the start of this century due to climate change. Another study of glacial lakes published in ‘Nature’ and ‘Climate Change’ last year had observed that the volume of lakes formed by the melting of glaciers jumped 50% since 1990 as glaciers retreated due to climate change. The State has witnessed an increase in natural disasters induced by extreme climatic events. A number of development factors, including deforestation, building of roads and tunnels through mountains, construction of hydropower facilities, tourism-related construction in floodplains and hillslopes and sand mining on river beds, have exacerbated the disaster risk and vulnerability in the region. Experts have also been warning that the ‘Char Dham’ project, envisaging road connectivity to the high altitude shrines, was being fast-tracked without assessing the impact and the carrying capacity of the region. The ever-increasing number of tourists visiting the State is putting pressure on the mountain ecosystem.
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