Chasoti/Dehradun: In the span of just nine days, two remote Himalayan villages — Dharali in Uttarkashi and Chasoti in J&K’s Kishtwar — were devastated by sudden floods that wiped out temples, bridges, and farmland. Though separated by hundreds of kilometres, both disasters share striking similarities, raising urgent questions about the causes of such events in fragile mountain ecosystems.
On August 5, Dharali was hit, halting the Gangotri yatra and leaving at least 68 people missing. On August 14, Chasoti was swept away, with the death toll climbing to 70 and dozens still untraced. In both cases, survivors recall little or no rain before torrents of water, rocks, and mud descended within minutes.
Authorities initially blamed “cloudbursts,” the common shorthand in the mountains. But IMD data tells another story. Gauges near Dharali logged low rainfall, while Chasoti’s nearest station at Gulabgarh recorded just 4–5 mm on the day of the floods — far too little to unleash such destruction.
This contradiction has prompted scientists to suggest the disasters may instead have been glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) or slope failures triggered upstream. Mukhtar Ahmed, director of the Srinagar meteorological centre, said satellite data did show some rainfall near Chasoti but confirmed it was insufficient to explain the devastation. “The scale suggests something in the upper catchment — possibly glacier-linked — funneled into the valley,” he noted.
Anand Sharma, president of the Indian Meteorological Society, stressed that blanket use of the term “cloudburst” is misleading. “Rainfall must be measured across entire catchments, alongside close monitoring of glaciers and unstable slopes. Otherwise, we risk misdiagnosing the threats communities face,” he said.
Both Dharali and Chasoti lie near glacier-fed catchments, and both saw floods carrying unusually large boulders, a telltale sign of glacial or slope-driven surges. India’s National Disaster Management Authority has already identified dozens of potentially hazardous glacial lakes across Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and J&K — but monitoring remains limited and early warnings rarely reach villages most exposed.
Meanwhile, infrastructure expansion continues. In Paddar valley, where Chasoti lies, the government has proposed a strategic road link to Zanskar and even an 8-km tunnel, projects that could reshape the fragile landscape.
For survivors, however, scientific debates and future projects feel distant. As Suresh Chander, a dhaba owner who lost his uncle in Chasoti’s flood, put it: “The night before, there was no heavy rain. The next day, just a drizzle. And then, in minutes, everything was gone.”
