Huge Rock Broke From Left Valley Of Raunthi Gad, Leading To Uttarakhand Flood In February: Report

More than 72 people were killed in the incident when a huge mass of rock and snow broke from a left valley of Raunthi Gad, crashing down in the Rishiganga valley and triggering a deadly flood in the Rishiganga river.

A huge mass of rock and snow broke from a left valley of Raunthi Gad, crashing down in the Rishiganga valley and triggering a deadly flood in the Rishiganga river that wiped out a hydel power plant in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district in February, a report by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has said. According to Saibal Ghosh, Director, Geo-hazard Research and Management (GHRM) Centre, GSI Central Headquarters, the event was initiated by a "snow/ice/rock" mass avalanche, along with a portion of jointed rock mass having an approximate dimension of 400m x 700m x 150m, from the left valley wall of Raunthi Gad (a left-bank tributary of the Rishiganga river). "The dislodged rock or ice constituting from the avalanche crashed to the Raunthi Gad valley floor after travelling about 2,900 metre with a vertical fall of around 1,800 metre." "The energy of impact at a very high speed has pulverised the snow/ice/rock, besides generating melt water, and the entire dislodged material of snow/ice/rock has rapidly flown in the downstream of Raunthi Gad and further down the slope along the Rishiganga valley, causing this huge deluge and impacts to the elements-at-risks exposed across its path, including the formation of a temporary lake on the Rishiganga river just immediately upstream of the confluence with Raunthi Gad," Mr Ghosh was quoted as saying in a statement.