Latest news with #NavinJuyal
Time of India
4 days ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Experts warn current Char Dham road plan could trigger Himalayan disaster
Two members of a Supreme Court-appointed panel have cautioned that the ongoing Char Dham all-weather road widening project in the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone , if executed as currently planned, could trigger a disaster in the fragile Himalayan terrain, reported TOI. In a letter to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Tuesday, senior geologist Navin Juyal and environmentalist Hemant Dhyani referred to their detailed survey submitted in October 2023. The report mapped unstable slopes in the upper Bhagirathi valley and proposed an alternate design to keep the road operational without compromising slope stability, as per the TOI report. Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass - Batch 4 By CA Himanshu Jain View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass - Batch 3 By CA Himanshu Jain View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals By Vaibhav Sisinity View Program Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass - Batch 2 By CA Himanshu Jain View Program Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass Batch-1 By CA Himanshu Jain View Program They said the August 5 flood in Dharali unfolded almost exactly as they had warned — with a glacier-fed stream bursting through, bringing down massive debris and washing away homes. In Bhatwari, a highway stretch nearly collapsed in an area documented to be sinking 12mm to 22mm annually. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Undo The experts urged the ministry to adopt the alternate design in their 2023 report and fully enforce the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone notification. They also called for extending eco-sensitive protections to higher Himalayan valleys. 'The Char Dham road widening project in its current form in BESZ will spell disaster otherwise,' TOI quoted Dhyani as saying. Live Events
Time of India
5 days ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Char Dham road plan ‘spells disaster': Experts say Dharali flash flood validates warnings; press for slope-stable design
DEHRADUN: Two members of a SC-appointed committee have warned that the Char Dham all-weather road widening project in the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone (BESZ), if built as currently planned, will cause disaster in the fragile Himalayan terrain. Their caution, sent in a letter on Tuesday to the Union ministry of road transport and highways, came days after the Aug 5 flood in Dharali village brought down massive debris from glacier-fed streams, washing away homes. Senior geologist Navin Juyal and environmentalist Hemant Dhyani, both members of the scrutiny committee for the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone's zonal master plan, had submitted a detailed report about it in Oct 2023 as sought by MoRTH. Flash flood played out almost exactly as experts had predicted The survey mapped the upper Bhagirathi valley's most unstable slopes and proposed an alternate design that they said could keep the road functional without undermining slope stability. Juyal, a former senior scientist at Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, has since resigned from the high-powered committee overseeing the Char Dham project; Dhyani remains on it. The Aug 5 flood played out almost exactly as they had predicted. At Dharali, one cirque stream burst through, dragging tons of rock and soil into the valley. In Bhatwari, a highway stretch almost sunk - in a zone they had documented as sinking 12mm to 22mm annually. In their latest note, the experts urged adoption of alternate DPR design as given in Oct 2023 report and full enforcement of the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone notification. They also backed extending eco-sensitive protections across the higher Himalayan valleys. The Char Dham road widening project in its current form in BESZ will spell disaster otherwise," Dhyani said. Pankaj Singh, head of the ministry's Dehradun office, said work was under way in line with SC directions and the Oct 2023 report. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Char Dham project in current form could spell disaster: Experts
DEHRADUN: Two members of an SC-appointed committee have warned the Char Dham all-weather road widening project in the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone, if built as currently planned, will cause disaster in the fragile Himalayan terrain. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Their caution, sent in a letter on Tuesday to Union ministry of road transport and highways, came days after the Aug 5 flood in Dharali brought down massive debris from glacier-fed streams, washing away homes. Senior geologist Navin Juyal and environmentalist Hemant Dhyani, both members of the scrutiny committee for the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone's zonal master plan, had submitted a detailed report in Oct 2023 as sought by MoRTH. That survey mapped the upper Bhagirathi valley's most unstable slopes and proposed an alternate design that they said could keep the road functional without undermining slope stability. Juyal, a former senior scientist at Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, has since resigned from the high-powered committee overseeing the Char Dham project; Dhyani remains on it. The Aug 5 flood played out almost exactly as they had predicted. At Dharali, one cirque stream burst through, dragging tons of rock and soil into the valley. In Bhatwari, a highway stretch almost sunk - in a zone they had documented as sinking 12mm to 22mm annually. In their latest note, the experts urged adoption of alternate DPR design as given in Oct 2023 report and full enforcement of the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone notification. They also backed extending eco-sensitive protections across the higher Himalayan valleys. "The Char Dham road widening project in its current form in BESZ will spell disaster otherwise," Dhyani said. Pankaj Singh, head of the ministry's Dehradun office, said work was under way in line with SC directions and the Oct 2023 report.
India Today
09-08-2025
- Climate
- India Today
Ice, rain, rocks and humans: The deadly mix behind Dharali flash flood
On the afternoon of August 5, around 1.30 pm, a seemingly gentle stream called Kheer Gad, which flows through Dharali village in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district, turned destructive. The flooded stream, also known as Kheer Ganga, descended downhill, carrying boulders, rocks, sediment, and water, sweeping away several buildings, and killing many in the village's market rescue efforts are ongoing, the actual number of those killed is currently unknown since bodies remain buried under 40–60 feet of sediment and boulders deposited by the flash flood. Meanwhile, the disaster control room in Uttarkashi has received enquiries for more than a hundred people who were in Dharali during the flood. Their whereabouts remain cause of the flash flood is still unclear, though experts have proposed several possible triggers. ROCK AND ICE AVALANCHE This calamity emanated from a cirque or hanging glacier, suggested Navin Juyal, a senior geologist with over three decades of work in Uttarakhand. Cirque glaciers are shallow cavities in which ice expansion of these glaciers ended with the termination of the Little Ice Age in the year 1850, following which, these glaciers receded and left behind unconsolidated debris called moraines, which are prone to erosion and mobilisation. Juyal theorised that on August 5, a rock and ice avalanche may have occurred at the cirque glacier that feeds the Kheer an extreme weather event like a cloudburst is typically the trigger for such an avalanche, Juyal does not believe one occurred in this case. He said moderate but continuous rainfall in the days leading up to the disaster may have triggered the contributing factors may also have played a role. Snowfall this year extended into spring, which Juyal attributed to climate change. Spring snow is high in water content, as compared to winter snow."Since snowfall extended to March-April, the cavity in front of the cirque glacier that feeds the Kheer Gad may have had high snow mass, which was also high in water content. Consecutive rainfall between August 3 and 5 may have made the cavity exceed its capacity. Cracks may have developed in the water-saturated mass, and then part of it may have toppled, resulting in an ice-rock avalanche in the Kheer Gad," he the steep slope, the avalanche may have quickly collected the glacial moraines (that include boulders, silt, and clay) and would have descended downwards speedily with all this accumulated the stream's path to Dharali are existing landslide zones, which may have temporarily, for no more than a few hours, obstructed the flow of the mass. When these obstructions breached, they caused a sudden release of sediment, water, and boulders that ravaged Dharali within appearance, the Dharali flood resembled a disaster that struck parts of Chamoli district on February 7, 2021, killing 204 people and damaging two hydropower projects. A rock and ice avalanche (80 per cent rock, 20 per cent ice) from Ronti Peak generated frictional heat, melting the ice and triggering a dense flow of water, ice blocks, and sediment. "The Chamoli flood resembled the disaster at Dharali, where a thick mass of water mixed with large amounts of sediment and boulders swept away several buildings and killed people," said senior geologist Yaspal Sundriyal, formerly with Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal the Kheer Gad, two nearby streams - Harsil Gad and Jhala Gad, located just 4-6 km away - were also flooded on August 5. At Harsil, which is about 4 km from Dharali, an Indian Army camp was damaged, and at least nine personnel went missing due to the posited that since all three streams lie close to each other and originate from a similar geomorphological setting, that is, cirque glaciers, Harsil Gad and Jhala Gad may have also experienced rock and ice avalanches similar to Kheer the cause of the disaster is not yet known, there is speculation in the media that a possible glacial lake outburst flood may have triggered the disaster at Dharali. However, Juyal said that his analysis of satellite images revealed no evidence to support this LAKE BURST BEHIND FLOODExperts continue to analyse whether a temporary lake may have formed in the path of the Kheer Gad and then breached, triggering the flood. This could explain the sudden force with which the flood surged and then quickly receded, resembling the emptying of a dammed water body, where the flow is abrupt but not Rautela, a geologist and former executive director at the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority, said, "Intense rainfall may have triggered a landslide somewhere along the Kheer Gad's course, forming a temporary dam that held back water. This water may have accumulated behind the dam and eventually burst through, causing a landslide lake outburst flood."Some local accounts mentioned a decrease in the volume of water in the Kheer Gad ahead of the flood. This suggests that water was likely accumulating behind a temporary dam satellite images could have provided more clarity on the cause of the flood, thick cloud cover at the time made it difficult for scientists to access clear satellite imagery of the area above Dharali. Dharali in 2023, when the market area, which is now ravaged, was intact (Special arrangement) advertisementA CLOUDBURST?Soon after the disaster, the Uttarakhand government was quick to claim that the Kheer Gad flash flood had been triggered by a cloudburst. However, Rautela said that while attributing the flood to a cloudburst was 'convenient', it did not offer a complete explanation of the factors that led to too said the flood did not appear to have been triggered by a cloudburst. He explained that cloudbursts mostly occur on the south-facing slopes of the Himalaya due to the behaviour of clouds under the influence of the southwest monsoon. However, the Kheer Gad, which was activated, originates from a north-facing slope."It is rare to experience a cloudburst in a north-facing slope in the Himalaya," he rainfall in the weather observatories and automatic weather stations in Uttarkashi district between August 3 and 5 recorded only light to moderate rainfall. Ahead of the disaster, no cloudburst signature was recorded by any weather observatory in the district, said Rohit Thapliyal, scientist at the IMD's Met Centre in Agarwal, Assistant Professor at IIT Roorkee's Department of Hydrology, whose research focuses on water and climate, has been analysing rainfall data from the Dharali region with his research group, HydroClimX, for the period between July 24 and August 5 - the day of the analysis includes early real-time IMD data, and satellite data sourced from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for the Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG), and ISRO's Indian National Satellite system (INSAT-3D). Satellite images showing pre-disaster Dharali on June 13, 2024, and post-disaster Dharali on August 7, 2025 (NRSC, Hyderabad) Agarwal points to a contradiction in his observations. While the cloud behaviour on August 5 showed extremely heavy precipitation characteristics, the analysis indicates that the maximum rainfall in Dharali's vicinity did not exceed 36 mm per hour, which is far below the 100 mm per hour threshold typically used to define a cloudburst. Still, the observed signature of a cloudburst mechanism has led HydroClimX researchers to consider the possibility that one may have occurred."Our analysis is ongoing, so, currently, we can neither fully confirm nor rule out the possibility of a cloudburst near Dharali. Further analysis is required to understand whether a cloudburst occurred," Agarwal A NATURAL DISASTERThis wasn't the first time the Kheer Gad flooded. The stream has flooded several times in the past, depositing several feet of sediment and boulders in Dharali. In 2013, when most rivers in Uttarakhand flooded and over 4,000 people died in a glacial lake outburst flood that hit the Kedarnath Valley, the Kheer Gad flooded as well, depositing at least 4–5 feet of sediment in Dharali. Several vehicles were buried, and the national highway was damaged. Dharali after the 2013 flood in the Kheer Ganga (Source: Chetan Singh Chauhan) The Dharali market area is built on a debris-flow fan - a fan-shaped formation created by repeated sediment deposits during flood events. This indicates that the ravaged area, where hotels, lodges, shops, homestays, and houses were constructed, is inherently unstable and unsuitable for settlements. Yet, despite a history of flooding, construction in the area has increased, particularly over the past two decades."Dharali is not a safe location for a human settlement," Sundriyal said. The buildings damaged in the flood had been constructed on the old course of the Kheer Gad, which had been encroached upon. "In this flood, the river reclaimed its original path," he said.(Kavita Upadhyay is a journalist and researcher who writes about the science, politics, and policy of hazards and disasters in the Indian Himalayan Region. A Himalayan resident herself, she is passionate about her region's stories, especially those that revolve around water. She is a graduate in Water Science, Policy, and Management from the University of Oxford)- EndsMust Watch
Indian Express
07-08-2025
- Climate
- Indian Express
In Uttarkashi, the cost of climate denial: When science is silenced, disasters speak
Three climate-related catastrophes devastated a short scenic stretch of the upper Bhagirathi (Ganga) river valley in Uttarkashi district on August 5. They devastated Dharali — a pretty Himalayan town along the Bhagirathi about 20 km before Gangotri, a portion of Harshil, six kilometres downstream, known for its apple orchards, and some nearby settlements, according to initial reports. In the evening, the Central Water Commission released a brief disaster report. It described the first incident, around 1:00 pm, as a suspected cloudburst flood, 'severely damaging' much of Dharali, sweeping away residential houses, shops and possibly affecting many people gathered in the town for a mela. A second cloudburst occurred around 3:00 pm in a small mountain stream valley, downstream of Harsil. A third flood, at 3:30 pm, submerged the Harshil helipad that could affect later relief efforts. About 100 Army personnel, assisted by The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and local police teams began prompt rescue operations. Later, a Dehradun-based IMD officer denied the occurrence of a cloudburst in Uttarkashi district. News media revealed that a 50-60 ft-deep debris flood had submerged Dharali's bazaar, about 20-25 hotels and homestays, and the much venerated, ancient Kalp Kedar temple. The district administration reported four deaths and about 60 to 70 missing, including about nine Army personnel. Detailed damage assessments are continuing. Late at night, Navin Juyal, Uttarakhand's most intrepid geological scientist, provided a scientific explanation of the disaster on his YouTube channel. The affected Dharali stretch lies at the base of a steep slope covered with towering deodar trees, amid rocks and boulders brought down by small mountain streams and frequent avalanches. The trees arrest the avalanches and their roots stabilise the slopes. Several cirques or 'hanging glaciers' – hollowed glacial ledges full of rocks, boulders and other debris left behind by receding glaciers in the past – dot the crests of the slopes. Five or six small streams emerge from these cirques and rush down the slopes. These streams can create havoc during periods of intense summer monsoon rains. Rising temperatures on the high crests melt the winter snows that quickly form massive avalanches, along with ice, rain water and the glacial moraines, as they rush down the stream valleys. The recent catastrophes were due to three such avalanches, all within 2.5 hours, Juyal explained. In 2012, the Union government had notified the Gaumukh to Uttarkashi watershed of the Bhagirathi as an Eco-Sensitive Zone (BESZ). This was to preserve its pristine areas and regulate infrastructural activities in the region. Later central and state governments, however, have been lax in enforcing the regulations, despite the strenuous efforts by some members of an MoEF&CC appointed monitoring committee. With the governments ignoring the BESZ notification, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) prepared plans to widen the National Highway in the BESZ to accommodate Gangotri's summer tourist traffic. In 2020, Juyal, as a member of the Supreme Court directed High Powered Committee (HPC) to investigate the construction of the Char Dham highway, warned his committee colleagues, BRO engineers and senior Uttarakhand and central government officials of the high probability of repeated future avalanches due to global warming and climate changes. In 2020, in its final report to the Supreme Court, the HPC recommended that the sensitive slopes not be disturbed. To protect the BESZ, particularly to conserve the deodar forest stretch, it recommended that an elevated highway stretch closer to the riverside be considered as an alternative to widening the highway. It would minimise felling of the deodar trees. Highway authorities have not only ignored the HPC recommendations, they have marked 6,000 precious deodar trees to be cut down. Mountain researchers have been studying and issuing warnings for decades now, in print and at high-level conferences where decision-makers are participants, that the Himalayan region is more vulnerable to climate change than most other parts of the Indian subcontinent. They have identified specific sensitive areas in the Himalaya and the policies and actions needed to avoid disasters or minimise their impacts. They have pointed out that HEPs should not be built in para-glacial regions, human settlements and built structures be located at safe distances from flood-prone rivers, particularly small mountain streams that can suddenly turn treacherous, road widening along slopes steeper than 30 degrees should be avoided, and that carrying-capacity studies are desperately needed in the Himalayan towns and cities. Senior government officials pay lip service to these recommendations but do nothing to implement them. The warning bells of the Kedarnath tragedy (2013), destruction of the Tapovan-Vishnugad hydro-electric project by the Raunthi Gad avalanche (2021), fissures in the ground and buildings in Joshimath (2023), glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in the Teesta valley (2023) and the repeated monsoonal landslides and floods in Himachal Pradesh are ignored by decision-makers in their headlong drive to push unsustainable infrastructure development in ecologically and geologically sensitive areas. As the saying goes, 'You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.' It is long past time for Indian citizens, bewitched by images of rapid economic growth, real for some but dreams for many, to wake up to the warning bells of climate change and demand safer, sustainable and equitable economic growth. Recognising and respecting nature's boundaries is our safest, most logical route to survival and economic development. The writer is a former director of the People's Science Institute, Dehradun. He headed two Supreme Court nominated committees to investigate the Kedarnath flood (2013) and the Char Dham Pariyojana (2019-2022)
