Avalanches
Avalanche alerts, but Army got no ‘specific warning’
The Monday tragedy that left 17 soldiers dead and 18 critically wounded at Khilanmarg, about 5 km from Gulmarg, could have been averted had the Army and officials at the Army’s High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) taken the warnings of its Snow Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) unit seriously.
17 Army men killed in avalanches
Shujaat Bukhari
JAMMU: Seventeen Army men, including an officer, were killed in avalanches near Gulmarg early on Monday.
Out of the 400 men undergoing training at a high altitude warfare camp in Khilanmarg area, 80 were trapped and most of them rescued, a defence spokesman told The?Hindu.
17 soldiers killed, over 80 rescued in Gulmarg avalanche
SEVENTEEN soldiers were killed and another 17 critically injured when an avalanche of snow smashed into a High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) in Gulmarg on Monday. Army spokesman Colonel Vineet Sood said more than 80 soldiers were rescued. The rescue operation was called off after everyone was accounted for.
National disaster management guidelines: management of landslides and snow avalanches
This document details the guidelines aimed at institutionalising the landslide hazard mitigation efforts, to make society aware of the various aspects of landslide hazard in the country and to prepare the society to take suitable action to reduce both risks and costs associated with this hazard. Includes regulatory and non-regulatory frameworks with defined time schedules for all activities.
Symposium on avalanches begins today
An International Symposium on Snow and Avalanches (ISSA-2009), jointly organised by the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) and International Glaciological Society (IGS), Cambridge, UK, which will begin from April 6 to 10 at the Siachen Auditorium, SASE complex, about 4 km from here.
Tourists flout norms, 1 dies in glacier mishap
Dehradun: One tourist was killed and nine others, including five foreigners, were injured when an avalanche from the Gomukh Glacier — origin of Ganga — fell on them on Tuesday evening. The local administration blamed the tourists for the mishap saying they had defied direction against venturing into the no-go area. ‘‘The tourists violated forest department's order directing visitors to stay 500 metres away from the glacier,'' V S Negi of the Gangotri police chowki said, adding, ‘‘They, in fact, forced their way into the area.''
Environmentally sensitive Bhutan on the brink
High in the Himalayas, above this peaceful valley where farmers till a patchwork of emerald-green fields, an icy lake fed by melting glaciers waits to become a "tsunami from the sky.' The lake is swollen dangerously past normal levels, thanks to the global warming that is causing the glaciers to retreat at record speed. But no one knows when the tipping point will come and the lake can take no more, bursting its banks and sending torrents of water crashing into the valley below.
Avalanche Kills Five In Kyrgyzstan
An avalanche killed five people in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, the emergencies ministry said on Friday. The avalanche hit the men when they were collecting brushwood in Kyrgyzstan's eastern Issyk-Kul region near its border with China, the ministry said in a statement. Avalanches and mudslides are frequent occurences in the mountainous nation of five million, especially in spring when meltwater rushes down from its peaks. (Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov) REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Armyman killed in avalanche
An Army jawan was killed in an avalanche in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said here on Tuesday. Rifleman Bhupinder Singh of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry was killed when he was swept away by an avalanche at Badi Baer in Tangdhar sector on Monday evening, the sources said. With this, the death toll in avalanches in Jammu and Kashmir this winter has reached 41, including 12 Army jawans.
Rs 2-cr aid for snow-hit areas
In the wake of widespread damage due to the recent snowfall, the state government today released Rs 2 crore under the Natural Calamity Relief Fund (NCRF) scheme. Chief secretary B.R. Kundal after taking a comprehensive review of the damage caused to the property and infrastructure due to unprecedented snowfall in Jammu released the money. At least eight districts in Jammu region have been badly affected by the recent calamity. In Doda and Kishtwar, a couple of high transmission towers, too, had been damaged. Kundal released the money after taking into consideration reports furnished by different deputy commissioners. Out of this fund, Rs 1.50 crore will be placed at the disposal of the PDD for installing new electricity poles in far-flung areas of affected districts.
