No lake formation sighted in Gangotri glacier: DMMC

A top disaster management official said that no lake was sighted in the Gangotri glacier area during an aerial survey of the region conducted today, a day after the Uttarakhand High Court pulled up the state government for treating the formation of the glacier lightly.
Yesterday, the high court had termed the state government's attitude to the situation as non-serious.
"No lake was observed in the area along the course of the Bhagirathi and the flow of the river was observed to be un- interrupted and normal," Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre Executive Director Piyoosh Rautela said.
He was quoting an interim report of the DMMC after an aerial reconnaissance of the area.

Rautela said a massive landslide had occurred in the area but no lake formation was sighted and there was no immediate danger.
The reconnaissance was conducted after the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Dehradun reported a massive landslide along the course of the river near the Gangotri glacier's snout recently and the possibility of a blockade of the river and the formation of lake in near future, he said.

The survey team headed by Rautela in its report said the weather near the snout of the glacier was very bad and the wind speed was very high, therefore, the chopper could not descend below 500 feet. The ground survey was not possible and so it was not carried out, he said.

Making its observations, the report said, "The entire area upstream of the Gangotri temple was covered with heavy fresh snow and therefore rock exposures were not visible."
"No lake was observed in the area along the course of the Bhagirathi and the flow of the river was observed to be un- interrupted and normal."
However, it said the satellite imageries depicted the occurrence of the massive landslide on the left flank of the Bhagirathi near the snout of the glacier, and the debris generated by this landslide had shifted the course of the river towards its right flank.
During the survey this particular feature was not clearly visible as the area was fully covered with fresh snow, it said.

However, in order to clearly assess the situation, it recommended that further visit to the area should be carried out during March-April when the snow melts.
Rautel said in a nutshell, there was no imminent danger from the landslide that occurred during the rainy season near the snout and at present no lake exists along the course of the river.