Context:
A satellite assessment found that four of five National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) identified high-risk glacial lakes in the Mago Chu Basin of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh expanded between 2016 and 2026. Shampoa Lake grew by about 10.7 hectares since 2019; however, expansion alone does not indicate an imminent disaster.
Explanation:
- A glacial lake forms when glacier meltwater accumulates in depressions or behind natural ice or moraine dams.
- A Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) is the sudden release of stored water after the lake’s natural dam breaches or overflows.
- GLOFs may be triggered by ice or rock avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, intense rainfall, rapid melting or dam erosion.
- Glacial lakes are broadly classified as moraine-dammed, ice-dammed, erosion-formed and other glacial lakes.
- Risk depends on lake volume, expansion rate, dam stability, glacier proximity, surrounding slopes and downstream settlements not merely lake area.
- Satellite remote sensing, including optical and microwave imagery, enables repeated monitoring of inaccessible, cloud-covered Himalayan terrain.
- NDMA undertakes GLOF-risk assessment, while CWC and NRSC monitor changes in Himalayan glacial lakes using satellite data.
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