Flash flood in Uttarakhand leaves scores missing and roads severed

A sudden cloudburst sent a torrent down Uttarkashi’s mountains this week, burying parts of Dharali village in mud and cutting rescuers off from more than 100 missing residents and soldiers.

Nitin Ramola and Nikita Yadav report for BBC.

In short:

• State and national disaster teams say damaged highways and phone outages have slowed the search through deep debris.
• The Kheerganga’s surge dammed the Bhagirathi, forming an unstable lake that drowned a government helipad and nearby fields.
• Meteorologists forecast days of heavy rain, prompting school closures and fresh warnings to pilgrims and tourists across the Himalayan state.

Why this matters:

Cloudbursts are not new to the Himalayas, but warming oceans are loading the monsoon with more moisture and pushing rainfall to fall in shorter, fiercer bursts. In Uttarakhand’s steep valleys, that extra water mixes with loosened glacial sediment and road-construction spoil, turning narrow streams into demolition crews that shear highways, smash hydro dams, and wipe out crops. Every summer the debris also clogs the Bhagirathi and other Ganges headwaters with sludge that can carry sewage, fuel, and corpses into India’s heartland, threatening drinking water supplies for tens of millions. The state’s militarized border zones and pilgrimage trails add more people and infrastructure to harm’s way, yet disaster management budgets remain thin and early-warning sirens rarely reach remote villages before walls of water arrive.

Read more: Climate change is disrupting South Asia’s monsoon and raising flood risks