New Delhi: The government has geared up to deal with the floods caused by glacial lakes in the Himalayan regions of India. The central government has sanctioned Rs 150 crore to deal with glacial lake outburst floods in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. This program is to be implemented by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

List of high risk lakes finalised

There are 7,500 glacial lakes in the Himalayan regions of India and the NDMA has finalised a list of 189 high-risk lakes for taking measures to reduce the threat posed by them. On the same lines, a separate programme has been envisaged for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Its objective is to assess the threat and set up automatic weather and water level monitoring stations and early warning systems in lakes and low-lying areas.

Central and state agencies are working together and operations have already been completed on 15 of these high-risk lakes. These include six each in Sikkim and Ladakh, one in Himachal Pradesh and two in Jammu and Kashmir. Operations are underway for the other seven lakes.

Teams sent to inspect

At the same time, for the first time, two teams of experts have been sent to inspect six high-risk glacial lakes in Arunachal Pradesh to assess the possibility of glacial lake outburst floods and measures to deal with them. The teams will inspect the lakes in the valleys located in Tawang and Dibang.