According to reports from the Hindustan Times and many other media, Nityanand Rai, the Minister of State of the Interior Ministry of India, responded to the question about Uttarakhand in the reply to the inquiry to the Federal House of Parliament on the 23rd local time. The glacier rupture triggered flash flood events.
Rai said that up to now, search and rescue personnel have found the remains of 74 victims at the scene of the incident, and another 130 people are still missing.
Rai said that the National Disaster Management Agency has led the establishment of an accident investigation expert group to find out the detailed causes of glacier ruptures and flash floods, and to accumulate experience to prevent such incidents from happening again.
He also said that the government of Uttarakhand has set up a special committee to investigate and study the glacial lakes in the area and their effects.
At about 12:00 noon on February 7 this year, local time, a glacier in the Chamorli area of Northern India’s North Arkhand was broken. The fractured glacier formed a mountain torrent mixed with crushed ice, silt and rocks. The Dauriganga River at the source of the Ganges whizzed down and destroyed five bridges in Uttarakhand, as well as dams, construction tunnels and villages.
Thousands of people in the lower reaches of the river were forced to evacuate urgently, and several hydropower stations downstream also temporarily opened gates to release water to meet the sudden flood peak upstream.
(Headquarters reporter Liao Jiyong)