By Devjyot Ghoshal and Saurabh Sharma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An estimated 150 people died in northern India after a Himalayan glacier burst and destroyed a hydroelectric dam on Sunday, with floods that forced the evacuation of villages downstream.
“The actual number has not yet been confirmed,” but an estimated 100 to 150 people died, Om Prakash, Uttarakhand’s chief secretary of state where the incident occurred, told Reuters.
A witness reported a wall of dust, rock and water as an avalanche roared in the Dhauli Ganga River valley, located more than 500 km (310 miles) north of New Delhi.
“It came very quickly, there was no time to alert anyone,” Sanjay Singh Rana, who lives at the top of the river in the village of Raini in Uttarakhand, told Reuters by telephone. “I felt that even we would be wiped out.”
Uttarakhand police chief Ashok Kumar told reporters that more than 50 people working at the dam, the Rishiganga Hydroelectric Project, are feared dead, although others have been rescued. Kumar also said that authorities had evacuated other dams to contain the water flowing from the flooded Alakananda River.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was monitoring the situation closely.
“India is with Uttarakhand and the nation prays for the safety of everyone there,” he said on Twitter, after speaking with the state’s chief minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat.
The Indian Air Force is being prepared to assist with rescue operations, the federal government said, while Interior Minister Amit Shah said that disaster response teams are being transported by air to aid in rescue and rescue. Army soldiers have already been deployed and their helicopters are conducting aerial reconnaissance of the area.
The neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous in India, has put its riverside areas on high alert.
Footage shared by locals showed the water washing away parts of the Rishiganga dam, as well as everything in its path.
Videos on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed water flowing through a small dam, carrying construction equipment.
“Currently, no additional water flows are being reported and there is no flooding anywhere,” Chief Minister Rawat said on Twitter.
“No losses have been reported in the villages along Alaknanda.”
‘HIMALAYAN TSUNAMI’
Uttarakhand, in the Himalayas, is subject to flash floods and landslides. In June 2013, record rains caused devastating floods that claimed nearly 6,000 lives.
This disaster was dubbed the “Himalayan tsunami” because of torrents of water released in the mountainous area, which threw mud and stones, burying houses, sweeping buildings, roads and bridges.
A Bharti, a former water minister in India and senior leader of Modi’s party, criticized the construction of an energy project in the area.
“When I was a minister, I asked the Himalayas to be a very sensitive place, so energy projects should not be built in Ganga and its main tributaries,” she said on Twitter, referring to the main river that flows from the mountain.
Environmental experts have called for the shutdown of large hydroelectric projects in the state.
“This disaster again requires serious scrutiny of the wave of construction of hydroelectric dams in this ecologically sensitive region,” said Ranjan Panda, a volunteer at the Climate Change Network who works on water, environment and climate change issues.
“The government should no longer ignore expert warnings and stop building hydroelectric projects and extensive road networks in this fragile ecosystem.”
(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal, Jatindra Dash, Saurabh Sharma, Krishna N. Das and Manoj Kumar; Editing by William Mallard and Christian Schmollinger)