India: Death toll rises after glacier disaster

Rescuers in northern India were working Monday to extricate more than three dozen power plant workers trapped in a tunnel, after initial reports suggested part of a glacier broke off, causing an avalanche of water and debris to crash down the mountain.

Sunday's violent surge below Nanda Devi, India's second highest peak, has led to more than 2,000 members of the military, paramilitary and police taking part in search-and-rescue operations in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

Thus far, the disaster has resulted in at least 18 fatalities. With up to 200 people still unaccounted for, the death toll is expected to rise.

Officials said the focus was immediately on saving 37 workers who are trapped inside a tunnel at one of the two affected hydropower plants.

"The tunnel is filled with debris, which has come from the river. We are using machines to clear the way,'' said H. Gurung, a senior official of the paramilitary Indo Tibetan Border Police.

Bleak outlook

Most of the missing were people working on two projects, part of the many the government has been building deep in the Himalayan mountains as part of a development push.

"Approximately 80 meters (260 feet) inside the tunnel is cleared and accessible. It appears that approximately 100 meters of debris inside the tunnel is yet to be cleared," Vivek Pandey, a spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, said.

With the main road washed away, paramilitary rescuers had to scale down the side of the mountain on ropes to get to the entrance. Emergency workers were using heavy machinery to remove tonnes of rocks and debris.

Exact cause unclear

Authorities initially suggested the cause of the collapse was a piece of glacier breaking off into a river, but the disaster may instead have been prompted by a phenomenon known as a glacial lake outburst flood.

This is when the boundaries of a glacial lake are breached, forcing an abundance of water downstream.

The incident may also have been caused by water pockets inside a glacier bursting.

Glaciers in the Himalayas have been reducing rapidly in recent years due to global warming, while some experts have posited that the construction of hydroelectric plants could also be a factor.

DW's India correspondent Nimisha Jaiswal said of the current state of play: "There are multiple teams still working continuously. The navy has sent divers to look for survivors or for bodies. Thousands have been evacuated. Twelve have been rescued but efforts are ongoing to rescue dozens more."

When asked if the disaster could have been foreseen, Jaiswal said: "There was no warning right before this particular incident, it happened so quickly. People did not have time to react. However, there have been longstanding warnings by activists, by local journalists, by environmental campaigners, saying that the construction is dangerous and that there is a way to prevent such disasters in the longer term."

jsi/rs (AP, AFP Reuters)