Unplanned infra projects to climate crisis: What ails fragile Himachal, Uttarakhand

The devastating floods, landslides, mudslides in Himachal Pradesh followed by Uttarakhand and now, the downstream impact on the national Capital, which has been flooded for the first time in 45 years may be unprecedented , but experts say they are the natural outcome of three factors: the climate crisis; a young mountain range that is still geologically active ; and mindless infrastructure projects.

- Jayashree Nandi

The combination, they add, will continue to cause damage every time there is extreme weather. Several scientific institutions and experts warned both Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh of this, but neither state took heed.

The facts, by themselves, should have forced the act.

The average temperature over the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) between 1951 to 2014 was 1.3 degrees C oas compared to 0.7 degree C over the entire Indian region according to a 2020 assessment by the union ministry of earth sciences. Several areas of HKH have experienced a declining trend in snowfall and also retreat of glaciers in recent decades. By the end of the 21st century, the annual mean surface temperature over HKH is projected to increase by about 5.2 degrees C under a high-emission scenario. The warming over the Himalayan region may be even higher now in the past few years but an assessment is pending.

River basins originating in the Western Himalayas are predominantly fed by snow and glacial melt with rainfall largely coming from wintertime western disturbances but with the rise in extreme rainfall events and various man-made obstructions thanks to construction and the dumping of debris, the behaviour of Himalayan rivers have become unpredictable. “Rivers rise in response to heavy rainfall as we have seen this week but if they are obstructed then they will flood any low-lying areas and areas downstream. River water has to find ways to move and drain. It’s a natural process,” explained Kalachand Sain, director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.

Finally, the Himalayas are still forming. They started forming about 50 million years ago but are still fairly young compared to other ranges. The Western Ghats, for instance started forming around 150 million years ago.