Rishiganga is a river in the

Chamoli district Chamoli district is a district of the Uttarakhand state of India. It is bounded by China's Xizang Autonomous Region to the north, and by the Uttarakhand districts of Pithoragarh district, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar district, Bageshwar to the eas ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

, India. It springs from the Uttari Nanda Devi Glacier on the

Nanda Devi Nanda Devi is the second-highest mountain in India, after Kangchenjunga, and the highest located entirely within the country. (Kangchenjunga is on the border of India and Nepal.) Nanda Devi is the 23rd-highest peak in the world and ranked 74t ...

mountain. It is also fed from the Dakshini Nanda Devi Glacier. Continuing through the Nanda Devi National Park, it flows into the

Dhauliganga River The Dhauliganga is a turbulent Himalayan river which rises in the border regions of India and China and flows south into the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, India. It joins the Alaknanda, the major source stream of the Ganges river. Course ...

near the village Rini.

2021 glacial outburst flood

Starting approximately 10:45 a.m. IST on 7 February 2021, a flooding disaster occurred all along the river and its

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

following a landslide, avalanche or

glacial lake outburst flood A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a j� ...

. Flash flood on February 7 in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, claimed at least 72 lives with at least 200 missing. Now, Geological Survey of India (GSI) has submitted its report on causes of the disaster. Key findings: The flash flood was due to a large mass of snow, ice and rock avalanche along with a hanging mass of rock crashing into the Raunthi Garh valley floor. This impact pulverised the combination of rock, snow and ice, causing a rapid flow downstream of Raunthi Garh and into the Rishiganga valley leading to the deluge. A contributory factor was unusually warm weather in the region. There was no evidence of a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) having caused the event. What happened on February 7? A glacial break in the Tapovan-Reni area of Chamoli District of Uttarakhand led to massive flash flood in Dhauli Ganga and Alaknanda Rivers, damaging houses and the nearby Rishiganga power project.

Gallery

Rishi Ganga gorge - Shipton-Tilman team climbing buttress.jpg, photograph from the Shipton–Tilman Nanda Devi expeditions Dhauliganga and Rishiganga Valleys.jpg, The Rishiganga and Dhauliganga river valleys in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

External links

* https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/297368683

References

Rivers of Uttarakhand {{India-river-stub