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A comprehensive and quantitative assessment of Raunthi Gad flash flood, Rishi Ganga catchment, central Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India

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Abstract

On 7th February 2021, a catastrophic flash flood occurred in Raunthi Gad, Rishi Ganga catchment of Dhualiganga Basin. It caused the death of around 200 people and devastated the hydropower projects and other associated infrastructure in the downstream areas of the basin. While the extent of damage and devastation in the downstream region around Rini and Tapovan has been extensively reported, the reconstruction of the event has still not been definitively established. Based on an analysis of the data reported in previous papers and our field and remote-sensing data, we present a detailed reconstruction of the events that occurred in Raunthi Gad that morning. Our analysis supports previous reports that the basic cause was that a portion of the hanging glacier located at Raunthi peak (5600 m asl) along with a large amount of rock fell and hit the Raunthi valley at about 1.5 km downstream of the current snout of Raunthi glacier at an elevation of around 3800 m asl. We present evidence, supported by previous data of transient ponding in the region between the impact zone and the confluence of Raunthi Gad and Rishi Ganga. We estimate the flood volume at Rini to be around 10 MCM and the volume of water available in the valley in the form of ice and snow to be around 6 MCM. We argue that this deficit can be accounted for by the debris volume. The material gained around 8 × 1014 J of energy during the initial slide whereas around 1.5 × 1014 J is required to melt the ice and snow.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal for her constant encouragement, providing infrastructure facilities and other necessary permissions to carry out fieldwork. HCN, AM & SSS thankfully acknowledge the financial support from Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi (DST/CCP/NHC/158/2018); and HCN & AP are grateful to Space Application Centre (ISRO) Ahmedabad (CAP Project/2020) for financial assistance to carry out the field work. We thank anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments to improve the manuscript substantially. We are also thankful to the District Administration of Chamoli Garhwal, Govt. of Uttarakhand to arrange the heli-survey of the flood-affected area and Mr. Byomes Yadav for his kind support during the fieldwork. Earth explorer, ESA and Climate data store (CDS) are acknowledged for distribution of SRTM DEM, Sentinel images and ERA5 meteorology data free of cost.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, 246174, India

    Harish Chandra Nainwal, Aditya Mishra, Sumit Mishra, Ankit Pandey, Sunil Singh Shah & Gambhir Singh Chauhan

  2. The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Tamilnadu, 600113, India

    R. Shankar

  3. Department of Geology, DBS (PG) College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248001, India

    Deepak Kumar

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  1. Harish Chandra Nainwal
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  2. R. Shankar
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  3. Aditya Mishra
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  4. Sumit Mishra
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  5. Ankit Pandey
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Contributions

HCN conceptualized the research work and conducted field survey. RS and AM provided the mathematical background and analysed the field and remote-sensing data. HCN, SM, SSS, AP carry out the field investigations. All have contributed in preparation, writing and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Harish Chandra Nainwal.

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Nainwal, H.C., Shankar, R., Mishra, A. et al. A comprehensive and quantitative assessment of Raunthi Gad flash flood, Rishi Ganga catchment, central Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India. Nat Hazards 114, 157–181 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05385-w

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