Kashmir Impulse Desk

Jammu, July 29

The University of Kashmir and the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee are working on a project to identify current and future risks from glacial lake outburst floods across the Indian Himalaya, the government said on Wednesday.

The study, funded under the Hydrology and Cryosphere programme of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, aims to develop methods to investigate glacial lakes and assess their potential hazards using Earth observation data and modelling.

The ministry sanctioned the project in 2022 at a total cost of 91.2 million rupees, and has released 62.03 million rupees over the past three years, Minister of State for Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The project will examine glacial lakes across different climatic, geomorphological and topographic zones and assess risks over different time scales.

The findings are expected to improve understanding and prediction of glacial lake formation and associated risks to downstream populations and infrastructure.

A glacial lake outburst flood occurs when water held behind a glacier or moraine is suddenly released, according to the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

Such floods can be triggered by heavy precipitation or cloudbursts, cascading floods from upstream lakes, failure of moraine dams, landslides, earthquakes or other geological activity.

The weak structure of natural moraine dams can cause them to fail abruptly, releasing large volumes of water downstream.

Because many glacial lakes in the Himalaya are located in remote areas, communities downstream may have little warning of an approaching flood, potentially resulting in loss of life and damage to infrastructure.