Talks Of ‘Preparedness’: An Exaggeration
We, including our governments, possibly first came to know about it only when Reni village, the birthplace of the Chipko movement of the 1970s, was hit by the front of this flowing storm down the Rishiganga river. It led to the washing away of several houses and people in Reni village, some of the people being those grazing their animals close to the river.
The first obstacle in the way of the storm was a barrage on the river which collapsed in a few seconds. The next obstacle was the 13.2 MW existing Rishiganga hydropower project, which was also devoured by the storm in a matter of seconds. The Rishiganga then entered the Dhauliganga river. Further downstream was the dam of the under-construction of Tapovan Vishnugad Hydropower project of NTPC, funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The storm did not take too long to flow over and destroy that too. In the process, the water and debris also entered the under-construction tunnels of…