Glaciers in the Karakoram region are in a stable condition, but those feeding the Ganga and the Brahmaputra river basins are melting at a faster rate, the earth sciences ministry has said.
The teams carried out a helicopter survey of the area on Tuesday to find clues as to what led to the massive flash floods that swept everything on the way.
Congress on Tuesday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party for its move to charge Rs 5 per ticket for attending Narendra Modi's public meeting in Hyderabad, saying it shows the "true value" of the Gujarat chief minister.
Since Tibet's occupation, China has disrupted the natural flow of rivers by pursuing a series of ill-conceived environmental and developmental policies such as the Great Leap Forward, the South-North Water Diversion Project, etc, the report said, adding that, this has led to a dam-building spree on the Tibetan plateau with disastrous impacts on Asia's major rivers.
'Geological processes occur at time scales that are beyond human imagination, but we need to understand these events.'
The temples committee has already posted a request to devotees on its website to contribute towards the rebuilding.
About 2.14 million people were displaced in India last year due to natural disasters, according to a United Nations-backed report which said the country was third after the Philippines and China to record the highest levels of displacement in 2013.
The U'khand CM appealed to people to not make the tragedy an occasion for building an "anti-development narrative"
'An earthquake of a slightly higher magnitude in the Western Himalayan region is going to be catastrophic -- not just because of the fragility of the region but because of how densely we have occupied it.'
In a letter to the chief secretary, government of Uttarakhand, Union Power Secretary Alok Kumar said the land subsidence in Joshimath was a very old issue, dating back to 1976, and the construction of the 4x130 megawatt Tapovan Vishnugad project started only in 2006 by NTPC.
India received 41 per cent more rainfall than normal from October 1-21 with Uttarakhand alone recording more than five times its normal precipitation, IMD data showed on Thursday.
Savita Kanswal, 26, was posthumously awarded the highest adventure award at Rashtrapati Bhavan this month. She died heroically, as she had lived, doing what no woman had done before her.
"I would not react on what is the popularity measure of any other leader (Narendra Modi), but I assure you whenever Congress does a rally whether by party President Sonia Gandhi, party Vice President Rahul Gandhi, or the Prime Minister, we will not charge Rs 5," the Union Finance Minister said in Jaipur.
'If you are constructing the tunnel in the Himalayan region, then if you have constructed 10 metres of tunnel, first you will have to do proper treatment and ensure the stability of this constructed structure.' 'You cannot just throw concrete on the ceiling and sidewall of the tunnel for permanent stability. That will not work.'
This is also the base of the ITBP's Battalion No. 1, tasked with guarding the Line of Actual Control with China that runs along the state.
"I had no government as the seat of the establishment was wiped out by the worst floods in over a century," Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Thursday, recalling the nightmare of the disaster that hit his state six days ago.
Multiple teams of the force, with personnel wearing protective gear and helmets, were rushed to the Tapovan power project site from their 1st battalion base in Joshimath and the ITBP mountaineering and skiing institute located nearby in Auli to launch search and rescue works.
Describing Kothiyal as a true soldier, Kejriwal said the former Army officer is affectionately called 'Bhole Ka Fauji' by the locals in recognition of his work during the 2013 floods in Kedarnath.
Groups of relatives have gathered at the Tapovan tunnel, hoping that their loved ones will emerge alive from its mouth.
It stands at a distance watching soundlessly as multiple teams work to reach those buried under mounds of debris and is sometimes heard breaking into howls of anguish -- a canine sentinel watching the rescue mission in its search for its missing puppies.
'In the last 55 years India and Pakistan have gone to wars, but nobody spoke about scrapping the Indus Waters Treaty.'
The temporary water body was formed after sediments that the catastrophic flash flood earlier this month brought down, blocking the mouth of a stream that joins the Rishiganga river.
Using drones and remote-sensing equipment, rescue teams intensified efforts on Wednesday to reach the 25-35 men trapped in a sludge-choked tunnel since the Uttarakhand glacier disaster three days ago and more than 170 remained missing, hopes of finding them alive fading with every passing hour.
As many as 36 bodies have been recovered from different areas hit by the glacier burst in Chamoli district, while 204 people are still missing.
The PSInSAR satellite technique used to observe the gradual sinking of Uttarakhand's Joshimath town is a powerful remote sensing tool capable of measuring and monitoring displacements in the Earth's surface over time.
'All hydropower projects in the Himalayan region must be stopped.' 'Joshimath is not alone.'
The cloudbursts took place about 3 pm on Saturday over Kothiara village bringing around 50 residential houses under loads of debris.
The death toll from the Uttarakhand glacier disaster rose to 31 with five more bodies being recovered, officials said on Tuesday as multiple agencies raced against time to reach about 30 workers trapped inside a tunnel in a power project site and 175 people remained missing.
The construction work of 4x130 MW Tapovan Vishnugad project started in November 2006. The project includes the construction of a concrete barrage at Tapovan (15 km upstream of Joshimath town).
In Uttar Pradesh, the death toll due to lightning strikes rose to 42.
The Uttarakhand government will not allow any state to make unilateral efforts to evacuate its citizens stranded in the hill state, a move that comes in the midst of war of words on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's claim that he had rescued over 15,000 people.
Disaster in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh can be blamed on myopic industrialisation, urbanisation and tourism policies.
'Events like the one we saw on Sunday are complex geological processes which can be impacted by weather and climatic conditions.' 'It is difficult to attribute something like this to just one factor or to a particular time period, especially when we have still not understood the exact cause.'
'For lakhs of people in the flood-afflicted state, battling against the elements is taking a huge toll. This is the time of the year that apples ripen, rice starts being harvested and preparations start in full swing to put aside some of the food stocks for the long winter months ahead. At this moment, though, people there believe if they can succeed in coming out of this calamity in one piece they will have won the war,' says Rashme Sehgal.
Colonel Ajay Kothiyal, Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra, is one of the most decorated soldiers to join politics. He still has two bullets lodged inside his body sustained in a gun battle with terrorists in J&K.
'Where is the remote control in the BJP? When I become president, the remote control will stay with me'
'There was trust, but perhaps there was also this apprehension that given the supreme post of prime minister, Sonia Gandhi felt her authority may be a challenged.'
Search operation at the project site has been underway on a war footing basis for a fortnight since it bore the brunt of an avalanche triggered by a glacier burst over Rishi Ganga in Chamoli district on February 7.
'The 100-metre stretch from the opening of this tunnel is completely flooded with debris; the oxygen supply (through the pipes) too had gotten over and the chances of any survivors inside this tunnel are very bleak. Nobody has been able to talk to the people trapped inside'
