Experts assess ways to drain ‘8-9 metre deep’ glacial lake
DEHRADUN: An Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter on Sunday winched two of Navy’s divers to measure the depth of a lake formed upstream in Rishiganga river in Uttarakhand in the aftermath of the glacial breach on February 7. The chopper also delivered special equipment – quick deployable antenna (QDA) – to a team on the spot for any communication near the waterlogged area.
The team, which was formed by Uttarakhand chief secretary Om Prakash, comprised of scientists from Uttarakhand Space Application Centre, Geological Survey of India and officers from the Indo-tibetan Border Police
and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) among others.
The team, which arrived at the lake on Saturday, are analysing and trying to identify ways to drain the lake to avoid any further
breach and a repetition of the February 7 incident. A glacier burst in the Tapovan-reni area of Chamoli district on that day led to massive flooding in the Dhauliganga and Alaknanda rivers which damaged houses and the nearby Rishiganga power project. Sixty-eight bodies have been recovered so far. The artificial lake was formed over Rishiganga after the calamity.
“The experts will analyse the lake and direct the SDRF and ITBP men to drain it out by widening its mouth,” SDRP spokesperson Praveen Alok said.
Ridhim Agarwal, DIG SDRF Uttarakhand, said an IAF helicopter took two Navy divers to the lake to measure its depth.
“The chopper hovered over the lake and Navy divers descended close to the lake surface and used their hand-held echolocation devices for measuring the depth of the lake. The lake depth has been found to be around 8 to 9 metres,” Agarwal said. “Now, since we know the depth of the lake, we are roughly aware of the quantum of water present there. Our experts are looking for ways to drain out the lake by widening its mouth,” Agarwal added.
The QD, which is based on satellite communication, helps authorities to reach out to people or officials in areas where there are no signals and send and receive voice and video data and hold video conferencing.
In October last year the Uttarakhand SDRF had acquired this technology for quick reach out to those affected by disasters in the remote areas of the Himalayan state. “SDRF has procured six QDA systems, mainly three static and three mobile ones,” Agarwal said.