The Uttarakhand flash floods, Feb 2021

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The Uttarakhand flash floods, Feb 2021

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Destroy ecology, pay the price: The glacial burst in Feb 2021, in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand was a reminder of the ongoing disruption of the fragile ecological balance. A similar flash flood caused by a glacial lake burst ravaged the Kedarnath Shrine at the peak of the pilgrimage season in 2013, leading to loss of human lives too. Two major incidents in less than a decade is rare.
Enough data: There is enough data to suggest that climate change is responsible for the increasing number of severe flash floods due to glacial melt. Apart from climate change, the sudden spurt of environmentally-unfriendly development activities is responsible for the frequent occurrence of the disaster due to flash floods.
Climate crisis aggravating: Reports by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) held that 36% of the volume of glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region will be gone by the end of 2100 even if the world manages to keep the temperature rise within 1.5 degree Celsius target of the Paris Climate Agreement. Data from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reveal that the melting of the glaciers has increased in the first 20 years of this century. The faster melting of Ganga glaciers will impact the livelihood of close to 600 million people living in the Ganga river basin, extending from Uttarakhand in the north to Bangladesh in the south.
Flash floods: These are usually a man-made disaster. Himalayas are a volatile mountain system, being quite young. Even a minor change in the orientation of its rocks can trigger landslides. Despite this, we see many instances of high-intensity stone quarrying, frequent blasting of mountains, and digging of tunnels through the base of the fragile mountain system. These are done for the back-to-back under-construction dams.
Blissfully ignorant: Little attention has been paid to the damage caused to local ecology and loss of forest cover in the upper reaches of the central Himalayas by building hydel dams and construction of wider roads overlooking environmental norms. The upper reaches of Uttarakhand, the source for several small riverine systems feeding the Ganga, already have 16 dams and another 13 under construction. The state government has proposed another 54 dams to harness the hydel energy potential of these rivers. It could be the proverbial last straw for the region!
Hydropower love: While hydropower is a low-emission energy source, but by design, these projects are not environmentally suitable. River water is diverted for power generation, and this destroys the natural riverine ecology. In addition, the blasting and tunneling that happens while building a dam dry up mountain springs, which provide water for drinking and agriculture. An alternative is the "Run of the River (ROR) projects", seen as a “green” alternative to high-dam hydropower projects such as the Tehri Hydropower Project. This is because an ROR dam diverts the river flow in a controlled environment to generate electricity and sends the water back to the river, whereas a high-dam project stores river water in a reservoir.
Summary: With the increasing frequency of flash floods in the Himalayan region, a broad framework for robust early warning systems, infrastructure development, construction, and excavation in vulnerable zones must be evolved. An IPCC report has assessed that the climate crisis has altered the frequency and magnitude of the natural hazards in high mountain regions of the world. There is a need for adherence to the Chopra Committee recommendations, which studied the impact of receding glaciers on hydroelectric power projects (HEPs) and objected to the construction of HEPs in paraglacial regions (between 2,200 to 2,500 meters above the sea level). The hydropower projects must be weighed against their benefits and challenges. Alternatives like solar energy, wind energy should be pursued as the green growth model of development. The NDMA guidelines say that the construction of any habitation should be prohibited in the high hazard zone. Restricting constructions and development in glacial lake outburst flood-prone areas means to reduce risks at no cost.