Rescuers worked overnight to find survivors trapped under the rubble. Most of the disappeared are workers at two hydroelectric projects in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, which were hit by the avalanche.
The images of Sunday’s disaster show a wall of water and rocks moving fast down a narrow canyon and breaking a dam in the smaller hydroelectric project before it appears downstream, destroying buildings, trees and people.
About 2,500 people in 13 villages were isolated by the flash floods, Ashok Kumar, senior police officer in Uttarakhand, said on Monday.
Rescue efforts on Monday focused on removing mud and debris from a tunnel in the state’s largest hydroelectric project. About 30 to 35 workers are believed to be trapped inside.
According to Reuters, the teams managed to drill 150 meters from the 2.5 km (1.5 mile) tunnel, but the sheer volume of debris was slowing progress. On Sunday, the rescue team withdrew 12 people alive who were trapped in another smaller tunnel at the same location, according to Kumar.
Others point to the high level of construction along the state’s rivers, which in recent years has seen an increasing number of hydroelectric dams, projects and interconnection infrastructure, such as roads and new developments.
“This was a unique incident. The glacier broke and with … the debris fell and flooded the energy project here,” said Kumar, the Uttarakhand police officer.
Sunday’s floods brought back memories of a similar devastating incident in 2013, when the state was hit by what was dubbed by the chief minister of the area as “Himalayan tsunami”. Nearly 6,000 people lost their lives in these floods, according to Reuters.
Widespread damage
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said at a news conference on Sunday that “Uttarakhand witnessed a terrible disaster” and that the state expected “significant losses of human lives and infrastructure”.
It was after 10 am, local time, when a piece of the Nanda Devi glacier broke, sending torrents of water into the Dhauli Ganga river valley, located more than 500 km north of New Delhi, according to officials.
Most of the destruction was centered on two hydroelectric projects. The Rishiganga Power project – a small 13.2-megawatt dam – was completely swept away by the flood, India’s Energy Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The chief minister of state said that 35 people were working at the plant when the waters hit and “about 29 to 30 people are missing”. The rise of the waters prompted the authorities to issue urgent evacuation notices to people living further down the Alaknanda River.
As the floods erupted in the valley, they caused major damage to a second, much larger 520-megawatt hydropower project under construction about 5 kilometers away from the other project. About 176 workers were working at the site of the Tapovan Vishnugad hydroelectric project, which has two tunnels and is state-owned by NTPC, India’s largest energy utility.
More than 30 workers could be trapped in the second tunnel, he warned. Rescuers are struggling to reach them, but the road around them is covered in rubble.
A witness told Reuters that the avalanche of dust, stones and water came without warning.
“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.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a message of support after the disaster. “I am constantly monitoring the unfortunate situation in Uttarakhand,” he tweeted.
“India is on the side of Uttarakhand and the nation prays for the safety of everyone there. I have been talking to senior officials continuously and getting updates on the deployment of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), rescue work and relief operations.”
CNN’s Akanksha Sharma and Rishabh Pratap contributed reporting.