Kedarnath reconstruction works leading to continuous removal of moraine cover from Chorabari glacier ahead of the shrine area is bound to risk the future of Kedarpuri town, experts warn.
Geologists, glacier experts and locals allege unchecked removal of moraines will increase breaking and melting of the glacier with higher frequencies of avalanches in future.
Construction companies engaged in the reconstruction of Kedarnath town, also known as Kedarpuri, devastated in 2013 rain disaster, have started digging moraines as building materials from Chorabari lake site, 2-3 kilometers above the temple area.
This, according to the experts who are in thick and thin of the Kedarnath terrain, will uncover the mass of the glacier lying under the moraines and increase chances of it breaking resulting into avalanches.
Apart from this it will augment melting of the glacier for removing moraine layers will expose it to the outer environment and solar radiations.
According to experts, it will also increase the danger of floods 4-5 times higher magnitude than that witnessed in 2013. As per official records, more than 6,000 people were killed in the June 2013 disaster and the entire Kedarpuri was destroyed with majority of the buildings crumbled down or washed away in the flood.
“It is learnt that moraines in Kedarpuri are being excavated as building materials for the ongoing construction activities in the town from Chorabari lake area which is also part of the glacier. Digging moraines over Chorabari Glacier will expose underlying mass of ice and aggravate its rate of melting.
“This will not only trigger faster recedes of the 6.5 kilometres long glacier but also lead to the breakdown of a big portion of ice mass with multiple consequences in areas down Mandakini River stream. Recently we saw a big disaster in the making between Ramabara and Gaurikund that resulted from massive rains in the upper Mandakini river course leading to multiple landslides,” M P S Bisht, senior scientist and head, Department of Geology, HNB Garhwal University Srinagar, said.
Similar views were expressed by another senior scientist and retired glaciologist D P Dobhal.
“They are inviting another disaster by digging out moraines from the Glacier area. Heavy rains in the under construction town will anytime result in a massive volume of water stream in the river Mandakini as the glacier will melt at greater pace. It may lead to big avalanches in Kedarnath. We are already witnessing its fallouts in the recent past but have turned blind eyes on it.”
Dobhal informed that construction activities in the Kedarnath had already inflicted huge damage to the terrain by disposing off big boulders deposited around the temple in the 2013 disaster.
“These boulders would have been better safety devices for the temple than present multiple tiers of walls raised under Kedarnath reconstruction plan” added Dobhal.
State government officials looking after the construction work in Kedarnath Town were unwilling to come on record, but they admitted that high decibel works involving construction of multistoried buildings, deep diggings, removal of big boulders and rocks for constructions works, deployment of heavy machines like stone crushers close to the glacier and other similar tasks taken up in Kedarpuri in the last 11 years have deteriorated it’s local climate and risked the topographical stability.
Kedarnath town reconstruction works were started in 2014, but it failed to make a mark but for creation of an alternate pilgrimage track by Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in record nearly six months to resume pilgrimage.
However, it got impetus after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 and a Construction plan for Kedarpuri was enforced in his leadership.
Nearly 30 buildings have been completed while more than 100 are under construction, informed a priest and member of the Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC).