Lives of people in 14 villages in Pithoragarh under threat from melting Glaciers

The snow-stricken laden have become a threat to people of 14 villages settled on the border of Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand. Villagers returning to their native villages after spending the winter in lower areas are facing difficulties, adverse weather and the challenge of breaking glaciers. Large ice slabs are fluttering from the glaciers suddenly to the road, who have to make a lot of trouble to prepare the path.

People from Nashik, Baling, Go, Chal, Millam, Baun, Dhakar, Dugtu, Dantu, Ritidang, Khimling, Bidang, Sipu and Marchha villages of Darmah Valley settled at the height of nine thousand to 11 thousand feet on the Chinese border usually migrate to Dharchula during winters. From May 1 generally, they start returning to their villages. By this time the glaciers are solid ice, which does not possess the risk of slipping and reaching the roads, but this time the conditions have changed.

In the absence of uneven snowfall from the last week of April to the first week of May, the villagers had to extend the period of migration by one week. Gradual erosion in this period lead to erosion of glaciers. Suddenly, huge ice chunks breaking from high peaks have started landing straight on the roads, which threatens to hit the villagers who migrate.

Since the work of road construction has started for the China border, the frequency of ice breaking from the glaciers has also increased. It was rarely done earlier, but even then such large size ice slabs did not break. Now the vast ice slabs breaks down from its original place and fall on the road.