The Alaknanda Disaster: A Result Of ‘River Space’ Incursion

Abstract

The Alaknanda disaster in Uttarakhand in northern India during 15-16 June 2013 is one of the worst human tragedies in recent history. The impact of this event has reminded us once more of the increased and undesirable human interventions on the natural systems. The trigger for this event was an unusual natural process–cloud burst at several locations bringing down 200-400 mm of rains during 13-19 June, followed by lake burst at a couple of glacier snouts such as the Chorabari glacier lying on the slope of the 6,940 m Kedarnath peak and the Milam glacier upstream of the Goriganga and the Kaliganga. Such phenomena are generally called glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) and they do occur in glaciated regions at regular intervals. However, this event affected a large population living very close to the rivers, which were flooded suddenly at a time when a large number of pilgrims were en route to the Kedarnath temple. The impact of this event could have been easily minimised if we had a little more consideration and understanding of the river processes.