RUDRAPRAYAG, India – Rescuers in northern India worked on Monday to rescue more than three dozen power workers trapped in a tunnel after part of a Himalayan glacier collapsed and a wall of water and debris stormed the mountain. in a disaster that killed 18 people and left 165 missing.
More than 2,000 members of the army, paramilitary groups and police are taking part in search and rescue operations in the northern state of Uttarakhand after Sunday’s flood, which destroyed one dam, damaged the other and washed away houses downstream.
Officials said the focus is on rescuing 37 workers sitting in a tunnel at one of the hydropower plants involved. Excavators were helped to reach the workers who had been out of contact since the flood.
Rescuers prepare to search for bodies in the downstream of the Alaknanda River in Rudraprayag, northern state of Uttarakhand, India, on Monday, February 8, 2021. More than 2,000 members of the military, paramilitary groups and police are taking part in search and rescue operations after a section of a Himalayan glacier collapsed Sunday and a wall of water and debris crashed into the mountain. (AP Photo / Rishabh R. Jain)
“The tunnel is filled with debris that came from the river. We use machines to clear the road,” said H. Gurung, a senior official of the Indian Tibetan Border Police.
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Authorities feared many more were killed and searched boats upstream. They also walked along riverbanks and searched with binoculars for bodies that may have washed downstream.
This photo, provided by Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), shows a man reacting after being pulled out of the ground by ITBP personnel during rescue operations after a section of the Nanda Devi Glacier in Tapovan area in the north state of Uttarakhand, India. , Sunday 7 February 2021. (Indo Tibetan border police via AP)
The flooding was caused when a section of the Nanda Devi Glacier cut off Sunday morning, releasing water trapped behind it. Experts said the disaster could be related to global warming and a team of scientists was flown to the site on Monday to investigate what exactly happened.
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The floodwaters stormed the mountain and forced into other bodies of water, forcing the villages along the banks of the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers. The video showed the muddy, concrete-gray floodwater tumbling through a valley and crashing into a dam, breaking it to pieces with little resistance before flowing downstream. It turned the countryside into what looked like an ash-colored lunar landscape.
Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel undertake rescue work at one of the hydropower projects in Reni town in the Chamoli district, in the Indian state of Uttrakhund, Monday, February 8, 2021. Rescue efforts continued on Monday to rescue 37 people after a part of a glacier broke down and released a stream of water and debris that sank in two hydroelectric plants on Sunday. (AP Photo)
A hydroelectric power plant on the Alaknanda has been destroyed and a plant in Dhauliganga has been damaged, said Vivek Pandey, an Indian Tibetan border police spokesman. The two rivers flow from the mountains of the Himalayas before merging with the Ganges River.
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The trapped workers were at the Dhauliganga plant, where 12 workers were rescued from a separate tunnel on Sunday.
This photo provided by the National Disaster Response Force shows that NDRF personnel are ready to rescue workers at one of the hydropower projects in Reni town in the Chamoli district of the Indian state of Uttrakhund, Monday, February 8, 2021. Rescue efforts was rescued on Monday to rescue 37 people after a section of a glacier broke off and released a stream of water and debris that sank in two hydroelectric power plants on Sunday. (National Disaster Version via AP)
A senior government official told The Associated Press that they did not know the total number of people working on the Dhauliganga project. “The number of missing people could rise or fall,” said SA Murugesan.
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Pandey said Monday that 165 workers at the two plants, not those trapped in the tunnel, were missing and at least 18 bodies were recovered.
Rescuers arrive searching for bodies downstream of the Alaknanda River in Rudraprayag, northern state of Uttarakhand, India, on Monday, February 8, 2021. More than 2,000 members of the military, paramilitary groups and police are taking part in search and rescue operations after ‘ a section of a Himalayan glacier broke off Sunday and a wall of water and debris rushed to the mountain. (AP Photo / Rishabh R. Jain)
Those rescued Sunday were taken to a hospital where they are recovering.
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One of the rescued workers, Rakesh Bhatt, told The Associated Press that they were working in the tunnel when water flowed in.
Rescuers are searching for bodies Monday, February 8, 2021, downstream of the Alaknanda River in Rudraprayag, northern state of Uttarakhand, India. More than 2,000 members of the army, paramilitary groups and police are taking part in search-and-rescue operations after part of a Himalayan glacier collapsed Sunday and a wall of water and debris stormed the mountain. (AP Photo / Rishabh R. Jain)
“We thought it might be raining and that the water would recede. But when we saw mud and debris coming in at great speed, we realized something big had happened,” he said.
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Bhatt said one of the workers was able to contact officers with his cell phone.
Rescue workers board a boat in search of bodies downstream of the Alaknanda River in Rudraprayag, northern state of Uttarakhand, India, on Monday, February 8, 2021. More than 2,000 members of the military, paramilitary groups and police are taking part in the search. and rescue operations after part of a Himalayan glacier collapsed Sunday and a wall of water and debris crashed into the mountain. (AP Photo / Rishabh R. Jain)
“We waited for almost six hours – prayed to God and joked with each other to keep our spirits high. I was the first to be saved and it was a great relief,” he said.
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The Himalayan region where the flooding of Sunday took place has a series of hydropower projects on several rivers and their tributaries. Authorities said they were able to rescue other power units downstream as a result of timely action to release water by opening gates.
People are inspecting the site near the damaged Dhauliganga hydropower project at Reni town in Chamoli district after a section of the Nanda Devi glacier erupted on Sunday 7 February 2021 in Tapovan area in the northern state of Uttarakhand. (AP Photo)
The floodwaters also damaged homes, but details of the number and whether residents were injured, missing or killed are unclear. Officials said they were trying to locate someone missing from villages along the two rivers.
Government officials delivered food parcels and medicine to at least two flood-hit towns.
Many people in nearby villages work at the plant in Dhauliganga, Murugesan said, but since it was a Sunday, fewer people were at work than on a weekday,
“The only consolation for us is that the casualties from the nearby towns are much less,” he said.
Some have already begun to point to climate change as a contributing factor given the known melting and eruption of the world’s glaciers, although other factors such as erosion, earthquakes, an accumulation of water pressure and volcanic eruptions are also known to cause glaciers to collapse.
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Anjal Prakash, research director and deputy professor at the Indian School of Business, who contributed to the UN-sponsored research on global warming, said that although no information was yet available on the cause of the disaster, “it looks very a climate change. event when the glaciers melt due to global warming. ‘