Glacier Burst in India Saanvi Kunisetty

 Glacier Burst in India

Saanvi Kunisetty

The recent glacier burst from the Himalayas caused an avalanche of water in Uttarakhand, India, and has been apt evidence of the devastating effects that man-made global warming can really have. This region of Northern India experiences very frequent flash floods and landslides, also worsened by climate change. A recent study found that the glaciers in the Himalayas are melting twice as fast as last century. This glacier burst was actually very similar to a flood in the area, nicknamed the “Himalayan Tsunami”, which occured in 2013.

Since the glacier burst, over 170 people are missing, and almost 30 people have died. Rescuers have been organized in rescue teams to go and search for the missing people. In addition, some workers got trapped inside a tunnel, so the teams must also dig through all the debris that has accumulated in order to find those workers. These workers, 35 to be exact, were working for a state-owned hydroelectric project.

While environmentalists have been predicting and warning the area that this sort of event will consistently continue to happen near the Himalayas due to climate change, the Uttarakhand police chief, Ashok Kumar, simply dismissed the glacier burst as a one-time incident. The Chamoli District in Uttarkhand must now put in much-needed efforts toward rebuilding the now destroyed area.