Massive flood as glacier breaks off at Uttarakhand's Joshimath, 150 labourers missing
Dehradun/New Delhi, Feb 7: A glacier broke off at Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Sunday, leading to a massive flood in the Dhauli Ganga river and causing large-scale devastation in the upper reaches of the ecologically fragile Himalayas.
More than 150 labourers working in a power project are missing, officials said.
Homes along the way were swept away as the waters rushed down the mountainsides in a raging torrent. There were fears of damage in human settlements downstream. Many villages were evacuated and people taken to safer areas.
I am constantly monitoring the unfortunate situation in Uttarakhand. India stands with Uttarakhand, prays for everyone's safety, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
Though there were few details available immediately, more than 150 labourers working at the Rishi Ganga power project may have been directly affected, said State Disaster Response Force DIG Ridhim Aggarwal.
Representatives of the power project have told me that they are not being able to contact around 150 of their workmen at the project site," she said. The waters in the Dhauli Ganga, a tributary of the Ganga, was flowing two to three metres above normal,the official added.
Several districts, including Pauri, Tehri, Rudraprayag, Haridwar and Dehradun, are likely to be affected and have been put on high alert.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and assured him of all possible support to deal with the situation arising in the wake of glacier burst and floods.
In a series of tweets in Hindi, Shah also said teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed for rescue and relief operations of the affected people while additional troops of the force are being airlifted from Delhi.
"I have spoken to Chief Minister @tsrawatbjp ji, DG ITBP and DG NDRF regarding the natural disaster in Uttarakhand. All the concerned officers are working on a war footing to secure the people. NDRF teams have left for rescue operations. Every possible help will be provided to 'Devbhoomi'," he said.
Shah said the central government is constantly monitoring the situation in Uttarakhand.
"Some more teams of NDRF are being airlifted from Delhi and sent to Uttarakhand. We are constantly monitoring the situation there," he said.
A home ministry spokesperson said four NDRF teams (about 200 personnel) are being airlifted to Dehradun and will head to Joshimath.
The chief minister also appealed to people to not spread rumours through old flood videos.
He said the water level in the Alaknanda, another tributary of the Ganga, is one metre above normal but the flow was reducing gradually.
He said all districts concerned have been alerted and people have been asked not to go near the Ganga.
Scary visuals from #Uttarakhand. Hope for the best ?? https://t.co/iIUnoNTnJb
— Samir Saran (@samirsaran) February 7, 2021
A glacier breach in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Sunday has flooded the Dhauli Ganga river, Joshimath. Alert has been issued for Srinagar, Rishikesh and Haridwar districts of Uttarakhand.
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) February 7, 2021
Hundreds of ITBP men rushed for rescue.#UserGenerated #Joshimath #Uttarakhand #Glacier pic.twitter.com/tt99dTcbaw
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
