New Delhi – The death toll from devastating flash floods triggered by a bursting glacial lake in India’s ecologically sensitive Himalayan region rose to at least 47 on Saturday after more bodies were recovered, government officials said, killing at least 150 people considered missing. A dam burst at Lake Lhonak in India’s mountainous state of Sikkim on Wednesday after a cloudburst triggered rain and an avalanche, causing major flooding in the Teesta River.
The floods caused massive devastation, washing away or flooding 15 bridges and dozens of roads and cutting off significant parts of the small state in India’s far northeast, which is surrounded on three sides by China, Nepal and Bhutan. The only highway connecting the state with the rest of India was damaged, making relief and rescue work challenging.
In an image released by the Indian Army on October 5, 2023, trucks buried in mud are seen in an area affected by flooding from a glacial lake burst, in the Indian state of Sikkim. India Army/Handout/Portal
Police said nearly 4,000 tourists were stranded in two locations: Lachung and Lachen in the northern part of the state, where access was severely restricted as floods washed away roads. But bad weather has made rescue efforts more difficult as authorities have been unable to use helicopters to help those stuck in vulnerable areas.
Around 3,900 people are currently accommodated in 26 relief camps set up by the state, said Prime Minister Prem Singh Tamang on Saturday. He added that seven of the 22 Indian army soldiers reported missing had died.
Scientists have been warning about such catastrophes for decades
The flood was one of the worst disasters yet in India’s fragile Himalayan region, but it was the latest in a series of disasters linked to extreme weather events that scientists have attributed to climate change.
Buildings were inundated following flash floods triggered by the bursting of a glacial lake following heavy rains in Rangpo, Sikkim state, India, October 6, 2023. Prakash Adhikari/AP
Last year, severe floods in Sikkim killed at least 24 people and displaced tens of thousands. In 2021, a tragedy similar to Wednesday’s in another Indian Himalayan state, Uttarakhand, left dozens dead when a glacial lake burst its banks.
Scientists have been warning about the melting of Himalayan glaciers for decades, saying the rate at which they are losing ice is a threat to the entire world, not just Asia.
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However, experts warned of the possibility of an eruption in Lake Lhonak specifically in 2021 as a study highlighted the increasing length of the lake and suggested that it was sensitive to extreme weather events such as cloudbursts.
“It was predicted as early as 2021 that this lake would breach and hit the dam,” Dr. Farooq Azam, a glaciologist at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore, told CBS News on Friday. “The number of glacial lakes has increased significantly as glaciers melt due to global warming.”
In fact, scientists had warned that the likelihood of a sudden eruption of Lake Lhonak in 2013 and again in 2001 was very high.
The Earth’s average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since pre-industrial times, but the world’s high mountain regions have warmed twice as fast, according to climate researchers.
Hikers collect water near the Gaumukh (“cow’s mouth” in Hindi) at the Gangotri glacier, believed to be the source of the Ganges, in India’s Gangotri National Park, October 19, 2022. XAVIER GALIANA/AFP/Getty
Researchers say snowpack, glaciers and permafrost will continue to melt in almost every region of the world in the 21st century. There is also high confidence among scientists that the number and area covered by glacial lakes will continue to increase in most regions in the coming decades, with new lakes emerging closer to steep, potentially unstable mountains where landslides can trigger lake outbursts.
“There are more than 54,000 glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region and very few of them are monitored, meaning such disasters will continue to increase,” said a climate scientist and senior researcher at the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). . he previously told CBS News.
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