The first phase is expected to start this fiscal and continue till 2025-26. The Centre will fund ₹135 crore through the National Disaster Mitigation Fund and states will pitch in with the remaining ₹15 crore, ET has learnt.
The plan will consider and revalidate data related to over 7,500 glacial lakes of the Indian Himalayan region (IHR) and 56 high risk lakes will be under special focus. Twenty-five of them are in Sikkim and 18 in J&K. There are 8, 4 and 1 high risk glacial lakes in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh, respectively, as per a 2020 GoI-Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation synthesis report on Glof hazards in India.
The NGRMP action plan – expected to be discussed at a high-level inter-departmental meet on Wednesday – is likely to have four components:
- Component 1 will focus on Glof hazard and risk assessment. 15% of the programme budget will go towards creating and updating a glacial lake inventory and its classification in terms of hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment.
- Component 2 will focus on ‘Glof monitoring and early warning system. 35% of the allocation will go towards remote sensing techniques, advanced seismometers, water level sensors, cameras and trigger lines to monitor risk prone lakes and the designing of a warning system backed with smart phones and siren towards downstream to prevent loss of life and property.
- Component 3 will focus on Glof mitigation measures. It will have maximum outlay at 40% of the budget and will look at site specific interventions such as reinforcing unsafe moraine dams at glacial lakes, draining of lake waters through siphoning, controlled blasting, excavation of artificial drainage channels.
- The fourth component will be dedicated to awareness generation and community centric capacity building involving multiple stakeholders. The idea will be to prepare contingency plans. This component will also encourage more R&D on the phenomenon of glacial recession and Glof.
Who and How
While the National Disaster Management Authority will be steering the overall programme, its implementation and execution will be through states and at regional and local levels, as it is site specific.
Funding will be project based and each such project proposal will be reviewed by a technical advisory committee (Tac) and project appraisal committee (Pac) of NDMA and State DMA. Once Tac has assessed a project report, Pac will appraise it on financial and administrative benchmarks before the go-ahead.
The project has been drafted keeping in mind that Glof is not under any single ministry and department and hence often falls through the cracks, even as risks are increasing amid expanding glacial lakes. Since most of these lakes are in remote locations in northeastern and hilly states, funding and mitigation expertise is a challenge for states.
The Centre is looking at NDMA linkage with nearly 17-20 ministries/organisations and research institutes to develop a coordinated approach across the IHR states. NDMA had proposed a similar comprehensive national glof mitigation project in 2020 but it has yet to take off. The parliamentary panel had also emphasised in its March 2023 report on the need for a nodal agency and coordinated governmental mitigation plan for Glof risks.
