With instances of floods caused by glacier lake outbursts, cloudbursts and avalanches witnessing a substantial rise in recent years, a parliamentary committee has urged the Centre to adopt a more proactive and integrated approach, using the latest technological interventions for early warning forecasting.
The standing committee on water resources, led by BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, presented its report in Parliament, emphasising that risk prevention measures alone are insufficient to mitigate the challenges posed by such natural calamities. "All factors such as climate change, global warming, deforestation, and other triggers must be identified and addressed promptly through proper planning and coordination by all stakeholders at every level," the report recommended.
The report highlighted that glacier outbursts in the northeastern and Himalayan regions have increased massively. It identified climate change as the primary factor driving these natural disasters. The committee stated that the impact of global warming has been observed worldwide, particularly over the Himalayan cryosphere, where glaciers are retreating at an accelerated pace, leading to the formation and evolution of glacier lakes. Most of these lakes in the Himalayan region have emerged within the last 50 years.
This rapid evolution of glacier lakes, coupled with continuously changing climatic conditions, has heightened the threat of Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and associated hazards.
The Ministry of Jal Shakti conducted a study on the risk assessment of glacier lakes in the Himalayan regions of Indian river basins through the National Remote Sensing Centre. This data has been used to compile glacier atlases of the Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra, and combined Indian Himalayan river basins. An inventory of 28,043 glacial lakes, each exceeding 0.25 hectares in size, has been prepared for the entire catchment area of Indian Himalayan rivers using high-resolution satellite data. Of these, 2,188 lakes are located in Arunachal Pradesh and 733 in Sikkim, both in India's northeast region.
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The committee noted recent GLOF incidents, including the bursting of South Lhonak lake in Sikkim in October 2023, which led to severe flooding of the Teesta river valley, causing extensive damage to buildings, highways, and communities in small villages. More recently, a glacier burst triggered a massive avalanche in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, resulting in significant loss of life and property.
According to officials, a GLOF is characterised by the sudden release of a large volume of lake water along with sediments, which rushes downstream and often transforms into a flash flood. The 2013 Kedarnath tragedy, where the lateral moraine-dammed Chorabari lake burst, causing substantial loss of life, property, and infrastructure, was cited as a prime example. In contrast, a cloudburst involves extremely heavy rainfall over a localised area at an exceptionally high rate of around 100mm per hour, accompanied by strong winds and lightning. Such events typically affect an area not exceeding 20-30 sq. kilometres.
When questioned by the parliamentary panel about the key factors contributing to the formation of glacial lakes and cloudbursts, the concerned departments stated, "The expansion of existing lakes and the development of new glacial lakes are primarily due to increased air temperature."
