Record rainfall causes massive floods in Uttarakhand; 64 dead

Torrential downpour in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand for three consecutive days has led to heavy loss of lives, livestock and property, even as disaster response teams struggle to rescue people from flooded areas and recover the dead. The death toll stood at 64 on Thursday.

Agencies report that Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has announced relief of Rs.4 lakh for the family of the deceased and Rs. 1.9 lakh for those who lost their houses.

Heavy rainfall began on October 17, 2021 causing landslides and house collapse in several areas. Crops standing on several hectares of land were destroyed, as were roads and railway tracks. Helicopters were deployed to lift people off inundated areas. Almost all the six districts in the Kumaon region and a few in the Garhwal region received heavy rainfall, with Nainital district bearing the brunt of it.

In Nainital, the death toll was reported to be 34 on Thursday. More than 100 tourists were stranded in Darma and Bayas valleys. They were moved to Government guest houses, dhabas and evacuee camps. A group of trekkers from Bengal were among nine persons who were found dead – five in Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh and four in Sunderdhunga valley in Kumaon.

Nearly 80 tourists, most of them from Bengal, Punjab and Delhi, were reportedly stuck in Batal in Spiti valley of Himachal since Sunday as the heavy snowfall blocked the Manali-Kaza Highway.

Shailesh Kumar, District Disaster Management Officer (DDMO), Nainital, said that 28 casualties were reported on October 19. The rescue teams were still on the look out for more bodies. Rescue teams were picking people up in helicopters from far flung areas like Ramnagar where road access has been cut off. The most affected areas in this district were Dhari and Ramgarh Tehsils. Sluice gates of dams and barrages opening up to let out excess water has compounded the problem.

K.C. Uniyal, Executive Engineer, Uttarakhand Irrigation Department, Nainital, said that 79,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) of water was discharged from the Kosi-Ramnagar Barrage when the water level reached the danger mark at 353.8 feet. However, on October 19, the water level reached a whopping 355.8 feet forcing the authorities to discharge 1,46,000 cusecs into the river that caused the widespread floods. According to the Irrigation Department’s website, the design discharge for the Ramnagar Dam is a little over 42,000 cusecs, which is a measure for the maximum water allowed to pass through without causing inundation on the channel banks.

Chandra Shekhar Singh, Chief Engineer Level-1, Haldwani, said that the Haldwani Gola Barrage released 89,000 cusecs of water when the level stood at 793 feet; the Udham Singh Nagar-Haripura Barrage released 25,000 cusecs at a level of 793 feet; and Champawat district’s Tanakpur, Sharda Barrage released 5,50,000 cusecs at a level of 224.9 meter (737 feet) following the heavy downpour between the mornings of October 18 and October 19.

According to Jagdish Chandra, Superintendent of Police-City, Nainital, 17 teams of

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 60 teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), 15 companies of Pradeshik Armed Constabulary (PAC) and 5,000 police personnel were engaged in rescue and relief operations in the Kumaon region.

Amit Ragar, Master Trainer, Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority, told The Voices that the rescue

teams have been spread thin across the State. The teams had rescued close to 30 persons from Ramnagar. Till Thursday, the teams had recorded 60 casualties, 22 injured, and two missing. Most casualties were reported from Nainital’s Dhari Block, with 11 deaths. Nainital district alone reported 33 deaths with most of the casualty being recorded in Ramnagar, Bhowali, Bheemtal, Mukteshwar, and Okhalkanda areas. Heavy damage to infrastructure and property has been reported from Jhutia-Soonka, Kaichidham Kwarab, Thaladi, Ramgarh-gram Sukhna, Mallasethi, Talla Ramgarh, Ramnagar, Chorgalia, Tallital, and Kathgodam. In Kathgodam, about 500 metres of railway tracks was damaged.

Rescue teams comprising personnel from State police, NDRF and SDRF, have pressed into service boats and rafts to ferry people out of flooded areas. Two choppers from the Indian Air Force were deployed in Sukam, Sunderkhal, Okhalkanda, and Ramgarh. The table below provides a glimpse of the rescue operations in Nainital district.

Table : Details of rescues and recoveries in different areas of Nainital district

Pramod Shah, Deputy Superintendent and Circle Officer-Nanital, said that roads along the Haldwani-Bhawani-Nainital-Almora-Bheemtal route have been closed indefinitely.

Bhowmick Indrawal, Scientific Assistant, Indian Meteorological Department, Dehradun, said that the department had put out a red alert for October 18 while for October 19, it was an orange alert. The department had put out an orange alert for heavy rainfall warnings for Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Almora, Champawat, Pithoragarh, Chamoli and Bageshwar. On October 19, a few of these places recorded the highest rainfall in history. Pant Nagar and Nainital, with excess of 40 cm of rain, were the leaders.

Table : Highest single day rainfall records

* Rainfall recorded between 8.30 a.m. of October 18, 2021 and 8.30 a.m. of October 19, 2021

Source: Indian Meteorological Department

Rohit Thapliyal, a scientist with the Meteorological Centre, said that the rainfall was unprecedented and caused heavy floods and landslides. While it rained heavily for three days but the single day rainfall on October 18-19 broke all records.

Several places in Champawat, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts recorded excess of 40 cm rainfall on a single day. Many places in Bageshwar and Pithoragarh, too, recorded more than 30 cm on the same day. The table below shows the rainfall readings in some of the worst affected areas.

Table : Rainfall levels at different places of 10 districts in Uttarakhand

Source: Indian Meteorological Department

Sakshi, a resident of Ramnagar in Uttarakhand told The Voices that it rained incessantly for three days flooding the banks of the the Kosi River. NDRF and SDRF teams rescued people from there. Flood waters threatened to submerge the Girija Devi shrine and a flyover in the area. The residents were shifted to relief camps. Resorts near the Kosi River were under water affecting tourists and submerging their vehicles. Resorts built on the river bank were the worst affected, she added.

Renu, another resident of Ramnagar, said the visuals they saw were scary as roads were submerged and vehicles and animals swept away by the gushing water. Bridges and railway tracks in Kathgodam were destroyed while the flood waters flowed over streets and houses.

Varun Joshi, a resident of Nainital, who had gone to Girija Devi temple along with his family for his grandfather’s death anniversary rituals, was stuck in a resort. He said that the Kosi barrage was releasing water and several shops and small temples along its banks were washed away by the flood waters.

The Char Dham pilgrimage route through Rishikesh, Haridwar, Kedarnath, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, Gangotri, and Yamunotri, has been closed as rain and thundershowers are likely to occur in these places.

According to Dr Arvind Bijalwan, Director-Academics, V.C.S.G. Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, Pauri Garhwal, said that extreme weather events like cloudburst, glacier blast, are often caused by several factors, like increase in greenhouse gases, imbalance in carbon sequestration, gradual urbanisation, deforestation, and expansion of roads.

While rescue operations continue, NDRF and SDRF teams have advised people to stay put in the places where they are stranded since they run the risk of accidents if they attempted to wade through landslide debris and damaged roads.

Edited by: Saptarshi Bhattacharya