Uttarakhand Chamoli's disaster death toll has mounted to 31 as of Tuesday, as almost 170 others remain missing after a glacial outburst triggered avalanche and floods.
The floods occurred in the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers on Sunday morning. The natural calamity comes as a grim reminder of the 2013 Kedarnath floods that caused widespread damage in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region.
While the 2013 Kedarnath floods were triggered by heavy downpour, the flooding on Sunday morning happened unhindered by rain, making the rescue operations easier. While an exact cause has not been pinpointed, it appears to be the result of a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier possibly bursting through its banks in Chamoli district, triggering an avalanche and a deluge that ripped through the Alaknanda river system in the upper reaches of the ecologically fragile Himalayas. Experts, however, are still trying to determine the exact cause of the disaster in Joshimath.
The disaster in Uttarakhand has brought to fore the dangers of climate change and the new disasters that are awaiting the world. Industrialist Anand Mahindra highlighting how the world faces new dangers in the days to come owing to climate change.
'India's own Greta Thunberg' feels the same way.
"Tragedy is a tragedy, irrespective of the number of people affected," says 13-year-old climate change activist Riddhima Pandey. "Are we waiting for an even bigger or more severe tragedy before we act?"
Speaking to News18, Riddhima mentions that this isn't the first time a tragedy of this scale has occurred in Uttarakhand.
"Nature was eventually triggered to a point where the avalanche came," says Pandey, adding it wasn't a natural disaster, but man-made. She adds that the project was is located in an eco-sensitive zone.
"Earlier, Kedarnath witnessed a huge loss of life for both humans and wildlife. The number of people dead may be lesser, but the tragedy of something we could have avoided, still remains," explains Pandey.
In 2019, Riddhima was part of the panel of children who signed a petition to the UN convention demanding immediate action to counter climate change. The legal petition, however, isn't something new to Riddhima.
At just the age of 9, Riddhima had filed a petition against the National Green Tribunal of India demanding updated measures after witnessing the devastating flash floods in Uttarakhand in 2013. The petition was dismissed in January 2019.
With the help of her father, Riddhima took the petition to the Supreme court, where it remained hanging, until they finally got a hearing date - and then the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
But Riddhima has always had solutions other than waiting for laws to be enacted. "I'm not in a place to change the legislature, but if enough of us speak up, maybe we can convince those in power to do so," says Riddhima.
Riddhima also advocates for better dialogue between the people behind the projects and environmentalists. "We rush to the easiest solution, which is destroying nature. But if we think it through, and find direction in a more planned manner, the reality on the ground will be much different."
She is sure there is a solution. "There is always a solution, where we can continue making power plants without harming nature. The solution may not be easy to arrive at, but it exists, and we must find a way to do it without destroying our natural habitat in the process. We have time to make more projects, but if we rush, we may no longer have an environment to make them in."