The number of missing and feared people killed after a Himalayan glacier burst and triggered a huge flow of water and debris that hit two dams in northern India increased to more than 200 on Monday.
Initially, first aid in the state of Uttarakhand said about 150 were missing after Sunday’s disaster. Nineteen were confirmed dead.
Rescuers worked overnight to find survivors and recover bodies, according to the state’s chief minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat.
“Our rescue operations are in full swing and we hope to save more lives,” said Rawat in a statement. tweet.
Rescuers were working to remove people trapped inside two tunnels that were blocked with rubble, according to police.
The Indo-Tibetan border police rescued 12 people from one of the tunnels. They were sent to the hospital for treatment, officials said.
At least 34 people remained trapped inside another tunnel, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Energy, Raj Kumar Singh, told reporters. Rescuers have struggled to reach them, but face a major challenge because of the accumulation of debris.
Singh said rescue workers entered the tunnel for about 70 meters, but there are still 590 meters to go.
More than 2,000 military, paramilitary and police forces participate in search and rescue operations, according to The Associated Press.
The Geological Survey of India is investigating what caused the glacier to burst and will send a team of experts to the area looking for possible causes.
However, researchers are already pointing to climate change as a contributing factor to the glacier’s collapse.
Anjal Prakash, coordinating author of a 2018 UN climate agency special report, said climate change has altered the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters in the world’s high mountain regions.
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And while data on the cause of the disaster was not yet available, “this looks a lot like a climate change event, as glaciers are melting due to global warming,” he said.
Dave Petley, professor of landslide science at the University of Sheffield, UK, said there is evidence that landslides are becoming more frequent in high mountain areas.
“It is likely that the cause of this is the impacts of warming,” he added. “The rocky masses in the high mountains are stuck to the ice in cracks and fractures. As the ice melts, the incidence of these events increases ”.
A 2019 report by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development concluded that more than a third of the ice in the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountain range will melt by 2100, even if governments take tough measures to limit global warming under the Paris climate agreement. 2015.
Two-thirds of the ice could disappear if governments fail to control greenhouse gas emissions in this century, he added.
