U’khand flash floods to have little impact on UP: Experts
A signal to limit human interference with nature, they say
LUCKNOW: Flash floods in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district after a glacier burst will have a minor impact on UP, but this was a warning signal for humans to limit their interference with nature, said experts.
“The breaking of such a large chunk of glacier is rare. It causes large-scale movement of water, debris and damage, especially near ravines. However, its impact will be limited to moun
tains and will be marginal in the plains of Uttar Pradesh,” said Venkatesh Dutta, professor at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU).
After the flash floods in Uttarakhand, the UP disaster manage
ment department issued an alert of flooding in Ganga and its tributaries.
Experts, however, emphasized that the incident was a signal to limit human interference with nature.
“The intensity of the flash floods will reduce drastically by the time water reaches Haridwar and enters UP,” said Dhruv Sen Singh, professor at Lucknow University, who studied flash floods in Uttarkhand in 2013. “Human interference with nature turns natural activity into natural disaster. We need to learn from these disasters,” he said.
Prabhakar Singh, an ecologist who has done research on Himalayan glaciers, said: “Glaciers are active and move slowly over a period of time. But in the past two decades their movement has increased largely because of global warming. The incident in Chamoli is also an outcome of this and other human activities.”