Environment activists in Uttarakhand have raised concerns about attempts to channelise and redirect the Kheer Ganga back to its pre-August 5, 2025 course in Uttarkashi.
On August 5, last year, flash floods in Kheer Ganga led to widespread damage in Dharali village. Only two bodies were recovered following the Dharali disaster, while 67 others, including 25 Nepali citizens, remain missing.
“We have already made the channel. The rest of the work will be carried out in phases. We have drafted a detailed plan for the river including bunds on both sides which has been sent to the Centre for approval,” said Sachin Kumar Singhal, Executive Engineer, Irrigation Department, Uttarkashi.
Activists and experts have raised concerns that engineered channels may fail during extreme hydrometeorological events (such as floods), causing greater damage than natural channels.
“It is understood that the government has initiated efforts to redirect the Kheer Ganga back to its pre-August 5, 2025 course by constructing a ~300-metre-long channel. The justification is that the current post-disaster channel flows through areas previously used as agricultural land. However, it is important to recognize that debris flow deposits, such as those at Dharali, are dominated by coarse cobbles and boulders. These materials can block active channels, causing subsequent debris flows to spill,” Navin Juyal, a geologist and Hemant Dhyani, environmentalist who were members of a Supreme Court appointed high powered committee(HPC) on the Char Dham highway project, wrote in a statement last week.
They have shared the statement with the National Disaster Management Authority.
{{/usCountry}}They have shared the statement with the National Disaster Management Authority.
{{/usCountry}}Dhyani and Juyal said channel diversion on debris flow surfaces can disrupt the balance between stream power and sediment load, leading to severe erosion in some areas and excessive deposition in others.
In conclusion, they said: “We are of the opinion that it would have been more appropriate to allow the Kheer Ganga to follow the course it adopted naturally during the 5 August 2025 event. The priority should not be to control Higher Himalayan rivers but to regulate anthropogenic interventions in these ecologically and geomorphologically sensitive valleys.”
According to various analyses, the Dharali disaster was triggered by a hanging glacier feeding the river.
HT had reported on August 9, 2025 that the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) has identified a glacial lake upstream of the Kheer Ganga river, lending support to the analysis by some glaciologists. Further, post disaster satellite images by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said there were indications of flash flood, with widened stream channels, altered river morphology and damage to human lives and infrastructure.