Even as Sikkim reels under the aftermath of a deadly glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in South Lhonak lake last October, another fast-expanding glacial lake in Uttarakhand Himalayas is becoming a cause for worry.
The Bhilangana Lake has grown to about 0.38 sq km area in the last 47 years, said Dr Kalachand Sain, Director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG).
According to scientists, the rapid expansion of the glacial lake situated in the Bhagirathi catchment area is unsettling, as it can pose threat to people downstream, especially under the impact of rising temperatures.
“The lake is situated at a very high altitude and the slope downstream is large – more than 25 degrees. We are continuously monitoring it, and have also reported about its expansion to the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority. So, if something like the Chorabari Glacier Lake outburst happens as we witnessed during the Kedarnath disaster in 2013, then we should be able to save the lives of people downstream,” Dr Sain told News18.
RISING THREAT OF GLACIAL LAKE OUTBURSTS
Glacial lakes form when the vast sheet of glaciers starts melting and the melt water gets accumulated. As the global temperatures rise and climate change intensifies, many of the glaciers have also begun to withdraw at a rapid rate, triggering the formation of numerous such glacial lakes, which, if unstable, can send torrents of water downstream and wreak disastrous floods.
These lakes are also continuously expanding amid changing rainfall/snowfall patterns. Studies show that over a thousand such glacial lakes have formed in the Uttarakhand Himalayas, but their understanding is limited due to lack of adequate ground-based studies.
“We have identified 13 such glacial lakes in Uttarakhand that are moraine-dammed lakes and around ten glaciers which are being continuously monitored, as they may pose threat to people downstream, similar to what we experienced in 2013 in Kedarnath, 2021 in the Rishiganga-Dhauliganga glacial avalanche, and more recently in Sikkim’s South Lhonak Lake,” said Dr Sain, speaking to News18 on the sidelines of the Anil Aggarwal Dialogue 2024 organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
