Why were alerts on Lhonak lake ignored?

A flash flood caused by a glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF) has wreaked havoc in Sikkim, badly affecting three of its districts and cutting off the state from the country. Downstream West Bengal has also been affected. Several people have died, many more are missing. Houses and roads, including a national highway, have been washed away, at least 14 bridges have collapsed, and parts of a dam on the river Teesta have been damaged. The waters of the rampaging river have caused havoc all along its course, and the debris of the 1,200-MW Urja dam, a run-of-the-river hydroelectric project, have added to the damage. The dam reportedly released over 5 million cubic metres of water from its reservoir when it broke. Thousands of crores may be needed to rebuild it. There are fresh alerts about more floods. While the rescue and relief operations are continuing, the event has again raised questions about the continuing assault on nature in ecologically sensitive regions and the impact of climate change. 

What caused the GLOF is yet to be determined, with views ranging from an earthquake that occurred in Nepal, to torrential rains or a cloudburst to permafrost degradation. The earthquake is considered to have weakened the dam, too. There were warnings about the vulnerability of the Lhonak lake, where the flash flood happened. It has been expanding because of the retreat of a glacier. The glacier was in retreat because of climate change. These were not general warnings but specific alerts, with satellite images which were issued recently. But they were not taken seriously and acted upon. There are thousands of other glacial lakes in Sikkim and in the Himalayas and many of them are in similar danger. The 2013 Uttarakhand flood occurred after the Chorabari lake in the upper reaches breached its banks and the waters gushed down. 

The distress signs from the mountains have flashed in all the Himalayan states. Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand saw a number of natural disasters in recent months. The impact of climate change is seen in the form of extreme weather events all over the region. The entire region is prone to earthquakes, flash floods and landslides, and climate change accentuates these phenomena. The widespread and heavy construction activity which is taking place is putting more pressure on the ecology, which is fragile and sensitive. Concerns raised over the construction of roads, large buildings and huge projects like dams are ignored or dubbed anti-national. Such warnings had been issued at the time of construction of the Urja dam. The Sikkim disaster is yet another reminder of the need to treat nature as part of all development plans anywhere.