new delhi, Aug 12
The lake, formed on Bhagirathi river close to Indian Army camp area at Harshil due to deposition brought by Kheer Ganga river that engulfed Dharali market on August 5, is assuming a worrisome shape risking lives at residential areas.
The Irrigation Depart-ment and Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL) teams are yet to start work for releasing water from the lake.
Garhwal Commi-ssioner Vinay Shankar Pandey claimed on Monday that UJVNL and state Irrigation Department had started work to discharge water from the lake but according to the officials in the UJVNL teams were still weighing options on how to begin. Officials said teams were already present in Harsil to take up the work for discharging lake water.
“Work started on Tuesday to channelise lake water after the main blockade, a tree, was cut and removed. It’s being done manually by the Irrigation Department for a JCB used on Monday to create an outlet for drowned in the Bhagirathi and an army personnel operating the machine had a narrow escape” informed UJVNL spokesperson Vimal Dabral. Dabral further said that efforts are on to create a bigger outlet to the water to be released from the lake. Earlier, Irrigation Department engineers, officials, and workers were airlifted from Uttarkashi to Harsil by a helicopter with the direction from Uttarkashi district administration to set up camp there.
The one kilometer lake formed ahead of Harshil Village close to the army camp area on Bhagirathi (Ganga ahead of Devprayag) is the result of massive debris brought down by the KheerGanga flash flood on August 5. The deposition brought down by Kheer Ganga river completely swallowed the Dharali Market for nearly one kilometer.
Uttarkashi district officials have informed that the lake with increasing water level runs the risk of rising water level towards Harsil village. It has become a cause for concern with water levels fluctuating every now and then.
“It’s a reason for concern as Harsil market lies close to the river and army camp too close to the lake. Although people have been shifted to safe locations but lake can spate any time if the water discharge doesn’t start early. It’s a matter of time before intense rain occurs on higher locations towards Gangotri,” said a Disaster Management Department official in Dehradun.
It’s noteworthy that before using the manual method of debris removal to form an outlet the plan was to remove the debris and drain the lake water using a poclain excavator. However, the plan was shelved for being time consuming and it was decided to remove the debris manually and work on drainage of the lake. However, Sanjay Raj, Superintending Engineer of the Irrigation Department, informed that around 20 workers, an assistant engineer (AE), and a Junior Engineer (JE) were at the site to channelise lake water.
This team will manually work on the lake and clear its mouth to see if a path for water drainage can be created.
The work will move ahead subject to the feasibility for the draining path.
Rai assured that there was no need to worry as lake water discharge was taking place on its own but the opening was not big enough to bring down its level. “Currently, lake water has spilled over about 500 meters of the Gangotri highway. If the lake’s water level drops, the road ahead can also be cleared.” According to Rai the Gangotri road was damaged by overflowing lake water,” he added.
