Central team visits first Sikkim lake as part of GLOF warning systems

NEW DELHI: A delegation set up by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) visited the first lake in Sikkim on Sunday under the GLOF EWS Mission which aims to complete study of 16 lakes in Sikkim this year, said officials aware of the matter. The central authorities along with the state government are rying to set up an early warning system (EWS) across 188 critical lakes identified in the Indian Himalayan Region that are vulnerable to glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF)-like events.

The development is part of the government's GLOF EWS Mission, which comes in the backdrop of the October 3, 2023 glacial lake outburst flood in Sikkim which claimed more than 40 lives, officials added. On Sunday, the teams visited Tenchungkha lake in Lachung area of Sikkim out of the sixteen identified by the NDMA, added officials.

ET, in April 2024, was the first to report on NDMA's identification of 188 critical lakes. The joint expedition is composed of NDMA officials, scientists from the Indian Space Research Organisation and the State Disaster Management Authority, among others, to make on-ground assessments for the GLOF EWS Mission and to plan mitigation measures, said people in the know.


The identified critical lakes are located in Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland.

The NDMA's recent 'Mission Report of GLOF Risk Assessment & Installation of Advanced Warning System in Sikkim', accessed by ET, also said that a "GLOF EWS mission with specific tasks needs to be planned in all the states which have risky glacial lakes".

The high-level meetings held after the Sikkim disaster reached a similar conclusion, with the experts agreeing that proper mapping of GLOF vulnerable lakes and installation of an advanced or early warning system was an essential mitigation measure across the Indian Himalayan Region. The region is home to several glacial lakes, many of which are expanding in size amid increasing temperatures.

"Glacial retreat and the formation of large glacial lakes have emerged as dynamic manifestations of this phenomenon. These changes elevate the threat of GLOFs, necessitating proactive measures in hazard assessment and risk management," said a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified.