Uttarakhand: After Dharali, devastation in Chamoli district’s Tharali

A young girl has died, and a person is missing after being swept away by debris brought about by a raging stream in Tharali of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, officials have told Down To Earth (DTE).

Water levels rose in the Tunri Gadera stream of Tharali tehsil on the intervening night of August 22 and 23. At around 1 o’clock, one to two feet of debris entered Chepado village market and Kotdeep market.

The young girl died when the debris hit a house in the village of Sangwada. Her body has been recovered by district disaster response force personnel.

Apart from this, search is on for a missing person. Six seriously injured people have been sent to AIIMS Rishikesh by helicopter, and more than two dozen people have been treated locally.

According to the Chamoli district administration, district magistrate Sandeep Tiwari is present on the spot and inspecting relief and rescue operations. Teams of National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local police are carrying out relief and rescue work.

Personnel from the Border Roads Organisation, the state health department and other departments have also been deployed.

Relief centres have been set up in the Government Polytechnic College and Shaheed Bhavani Dutt Inter College, Chepado. Vehicles have been arranged to bring people to the relief centres.

Heavy rain

Rohit Thapliyal, director-in-charge of the Meteorological Centre, Dehradun, told DTE that Tharali recorded very heavy rainfall from August 22 to the morning of August 23.

He said the Automatic Weather Station located in Tharali recorded 147 mm rainfall in 24 hours. This figure is categorised as ‘very heavy’ rainfall.

However, it cannot be called a ‘cloudburst’, added Thapliyal.

Prakash Negi, a resident of Narayan Bagad, told DTE that there was heavy rainfall in Tharali, Dewal and Narayan Bagad villages on August 22. The Pindar river and local streams are in spate due to the rain, he said.

Negi added that flash floods have been occurring continuously in Tharali for the past few years. There were two incidences of flash flood in Pranamati Gadera in 2023. The area affected by the current disaster had experienced a flash flood one year back.

Schools in Tharali, Dewal and Narayan Bagad development blocks were closed on August 23, as there was a warning of heavy rain.