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Tamak Nala in Chamoli has returned to normal flow after a sudden surge washed away a BRO-built valley bridge, cutting off 17 border villages in Niti Valley.
SDRF, NDRF and ITBP teams are constructing an alternative route with concrete Hume pipes to restore traffic, while search operations continue for a missing BRO employee swept away in the strong current.
The Tamak Nala stream, which had surged on the Jyotirmath-Malari motor road in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli on the evening of August 10, has now returned to its normal flow again. However, it has left behind large quantities of mud, debris, stones, and boulders.
A search operation is underway for a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) employee who was swept away by strong currents. Following the collapse of the valley bridge over the Tamak Nala, personnel from the State Disaster Response Force, National Disaster response Force, and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are working to construct an alternative route to restore connectivity for the 17 villages in the Niti Valley that have been cut off.
Amidst heavy rainfall, the flow of water in the Tamak Nala of the Dhauli Ganga Valley increased suddenly. Vinod Kumar Suman, Secretary of Disaster Management and Rehabilitation, reported that the valley bridge constructed by the BRO over the Nala was completely washed away. A BRO employee and a vehicle were also swept away by the strong current.
Following the incident, the movement of vehicles towards Malari was completely halted. Additionally, the administration advised people to stay away from the affected and vulnerable areas and to refrain from traveling until road conditions returned to normal.
Nand Kishore Joshi, the District Disaster Management Officer in Chamoli, told Down To Earth that the search for the person swept away by the surging waters is ongoing. “Seventeen villages in the Malari Valley—including Dronagiri, Niti, and Gamshali—have been cut off. These are small villages, and most residents migrate to areas lower down during the winter; consequently, the population present there right now is sparse. An alternative route is being constructed using large concrete Hume pipes, and traffic movement is expected to be restored by this evening or tomorrow morning.”
He did not confirm a cloudburst. According to Joshi, “There was heavy rainfall there. Mud and stones frequently wash down the Nala. Due to continuous rain in the area over several days, a large amount of debris surged down all at once. Last August, too, a sudden rise in water levels had washed away the cement-concrete bridge built over this Nala.”
The issue of damage caused by rain to newly constructed infrastructure—including roads and bridges—and the subsequent action taken was raised in Parliament in February. In response, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari stated that 51 new infrastructure projects had sustained damage due to heavy rainfall in the 2025-26 financial year; the bridge at Tamak Nala was one of them.
This year too, the washing away of the valley bridge has temporarily disrupted movement to and from border villages, as well as to the ITBP and Army outposts.
The Tamak Nala eventually joins the Dhauliganga river. The Dhauliganga meets the Alaknanda near Joshimath.
According to data from the Dehradun Meteorological Centre, Chamoli recorded 131 per cent more rainfall than normal between July 29 and August 5. Excluding Chamoli and Bageshwar, ten districts recorded below-normal rainfall, while one district recorded normal rainfall. However, Chamoli received only about 14 millimetres of rain in the last 24 hours.