Safi Ahsan Rizvi, an official from India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said that the installation work had recently commenced at 190 of the 7,500 glacial lakes in the Himalayas, which stretch from northern Kashmir and Ladakh to northeastern Arunachal Pradesh, AFP reported on Tuesday.
These lakes have been identified as having a high risk of causing floods. Glacial lakes form when meltwater from glaciers gets trapped by debris at the end of the glacier. If the water volume exceeds a certain level, the blockage can break, causing floods in the areas downstream.
The project, which involves geographers, hydrologists, computer engineers, weather experts and the military, is expected to take around three years.
Indian authorities have already started similar work at six glacial lakes in the Himalayan region of Sikkim in the northeast. In October 2023, a glacial lake flood in Sikkim caused the deaths of at least 77 people.
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