Uttarakhand Calamity: A Climate Revelation in the Bhagirathi River Valley Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

On June 16 and 17, 2013, high-intensity rainfall (>400 mm) in different parts of the state of Uttarakhand caused devastating flash floods and triggered widespread landsides. In this event incurred heavy losses to the infrastructure, agricultural fields, human and animal lives, roads and widespread destruction of natural resources. Disaster of such a magnitude of disaster was perhaps not experienced by the region at least over the last 100 years. Thus, this disaster can be considered as an extreme climatic event of the century. The extent and intensity of the tragedy can easily be visualised by the fact that all the famous shrines of the Uttarakhand state are located in high mountainous, snowbound areas. These places, Badrinath (3133 m asl in Alaknanda valley), Kedarnath (3584 m asl in Mandakini valley), Gangotri (3140 m asl in Bhagirathi valley), Yamunotri (3291 m asl in Yamuna valley) and Hemkund Sahib (4433 m asl in Alaknanda valley), were badly affected by this extreme fury of the nature.

In this paper we cover the devastated area that lies in the Bhagirathi river valley, which forms a part of Uttarkashi, Tehri and Pauri districts in the Lesser and Higher Himalayas, Garhwal. During the field observation, we have collected a total number of 4955 points in the Bhagirathi valley; these points are points of interest (POI) (2084), damage to bridges and culverts (44), landslides (1034), eroded land cover and natural resource (92), riverbank erosion (170), damage to roads (494), damage to other infrastructures (320) and damage to buildings (717). These collected points can be used for rehabilitation and infrastructure development, implication in future plan.