No Immediate Danger As Chenab Blockade Cleared Naturally

Central Water Commission (CWC) has ruled-out any imminent danger in a report filed after site visit

Updated on: 16 August 2021 1:25 pm

A high level team led by Director Central Water Commission (CWC) NN Rai, which visited the landslide site at Lahaul-Spiti on Sunday has ruled-out imminent danger to the local villages, land and properties.

Chief Secretary of Himachal, Ramsubhag Singh told Outlook on Monday morning that more than 50% of the blockade caused by the massive landslide has cleared naturally. The river flow is expected to normalize soon, without intervention.

“We have found that more than 50% of the blockage has already got removed naturally by the river. The velocity of flow at the blockage location is in the range. A natural bench of about 20m width and about 45-50m length has formed which will provide space to accommodate the material falling due to further land slide” the CWC report said..

The team was asked to study the impact of the landslide on the local ecology.

The report further said, “The concave shape of the sliding plain shall also provide some space to accommodate the further sliding material. Hence, further blockage of the river in case of landslide at the same location is unlikely.”

Beside Rai, other members of the team included Rohit Sharma (Central Water Commission,Shimla), Col Arun (Indian Army), Sandeep Kumar Rawal, Inspector, National Disaster Response and senior officials of the state government and district administration from Lahaul-Spiti .

“The situation seems to be normal at present, however the administration needs to be watchful of further slides” Ramsubhag Singh said.

Meanwhile a team of experts from the Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment, Chandigarh has also decided to visit Lahaul-Spiti and is likely to reach on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a team of the engineering wing of the Army reached Lahaul and it would visit the landslide site.

Deputy Commissioner, Lahaul-Spiti, Neeraj Kumar said that the flow of the Chenab has normalised.

“We are preparing a contingency plan as part of the disaster mitigation and response,” he said. Meanwhile in Kinnaur, the research operation continues at Nigulsari even as nobody was recovered in the past 24 hours.

Special Secretary State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) Sudesh Mokta said, "Till now, 23 bodies have been recovered and handed over following postmortem, 13 persons have been saved and search operations will be in progress.”