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North India Flash Flood Highlights Risks of Climate Change and Development
Projects

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - Environmentalists who have long warned about the double
   jeopardy posed by climate change and unsustainable development projects
   in the Himalayan mountains say the recent flash flood innorthern India
   should be a wake-up call for authorities pressing ahead with hydropower
   and road projects.

   Experts investigating the disaster say it was likely caused by a
   massive chunk of rock that hurtled down in Uttarakhand state Sunday. At
   least 36 people died and about 200 are still missing.

   "It seems that the rock mass got weakened due to freezing and thawing
   process due to the climate change phenomenon and crashed down along
   with a glacier hanging on it," saidKalachandSain, head of the Wadia
   Institute of Himalayan Geology. "It then created an artificial dam that
   breached and caused the flood."

   A team ofscientists from the instituteisconducting a detailed survey to
   ascertain the cause of the disaster.

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