Expert panels leave for Uttarakhand's Raini to examine causes of last month's glacial disaster

Two expert teams set out for Raini village in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Thursday to examine the causes and assess the effects of the February 7 flash floods that claimed scores of lives and caused large-scale damage to two hydropower projects. The panels formed by the National Disaster Management Authority will stay at Raini village for a week and study different aspects of the disaster.

One panel will examine the possible causes of the flash floods upstream of the Rishiganga and the Dhauliganga rivers, and the other will assess the impact downstream, official sources here said.

Minister of state for Disaster Management Dhan Singh Rawat held a meeting with the expert panels on Wednesday.


They will submit their reports to the Centre and the state government, recommending a strategy to prevent a reoccurrence of such disasters.

Seventy-seven bodies and 35 human body parts have been recovered so far from different places hit by the disaster which demolished the Rishiganga hydel project, besides causing heavy damage to the Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project.

The body of a woman was recovered on Wednesday, more than a month after the tragedy.