GANGTOK/NEW DELHI, Oct 11 (Reuters) – An early warning system for glacial floods was as a result of have been put in within the Indian Himalayas final 12 months, however work on the challenge solely started in September, officers mentioned, too late to boost the alarm earlier than final week’s floods that killed dozens.

Reuters first reported that scientists had been engaged on an early warning system at Lhonak Lake within the northeastern state of Sikkim which if absolutely operational might have given individuals extra time to evacuate when the lake overflowed and triggered flash floods.

But the challenge started simply weeks earlier than the floods killed no less than 60 individuals and left greater than 100 lacking as a result of Indian authorities couldn’t organise an expedition to the location final 12 months as deliberate, the officers mentioned.

In current years, glacial flood early warning techniques have been deployed in China, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan as local weather change has raised the dangers of flooding.

The Lhonak Lake system is a pilot challenge being executed with the assistance of Swiss businesses, with India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as the principle coordinator.

NDMA member Krishna S. Vatsa mentioned there was a delay because it was a posh expedition for a number of causes, together with the truth that the lake, excessive within the mountains on India’s border with China, is accessible solely from July to September.

“It was a large inter-agency expedition, which could not be organised last year and had to be done this year, because you have to carry a lot of equipment … and there is a limited window to go to the site,” Vatsa instructed Reuters.

“It’s a sensitive border area so we had to get all clearances,” he mentioned. “…We also had limited time to get there, and we had to get all agencies to agree on one particular date for this expedition.”

As local weather change warms excessive mountain areas, many communities are dealing with harmful glacial floods. Lakes holding water from melted glaciers can overfill and burst their surrounding partitions, sending torrents speeding down mountain valleys.

More than 200 such lakes now pose a really excessive hazard to Himalayan communities in India, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bhutan, in accordance with 2022 analysis.

Sikkim, which is wedged between China, Nepal and Bhutan, has revised the death toll from final week’s catastrophe downwards from 74 saying some our bodies had been counted two occasions – as soon as by native authorities and once more in neighbouring West Bengal the place greater than 40 our bodies had been discovered.

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