Smriti Kak Ramachandran
Tribune News ServiceNew Delhi, April 20
Urging the Prime Minister to put the disaster management machinery on high alert in the Himalayan region to avoid damage, the Federation of International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have expressed apprehensions of a disaster in the region owing to melting of snow.
The federation vice-president and MP, Mr Murli Deora has written a letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, apprising him of the heavy avalanches in the upper western reaches of the Himalayan ranges.
Mr Deora said these avalanches are "an indication of a disaster in the making" and the government needs to gear itself accordingly well before the Monsoon, barely few weeks away.
Citing assessment of the sources of the Red Cross and agencies that are constantly monitoring the situation in the Himalayas, Mr Deora said the highest snowfall in a decade received this year and the recent floods in Assam and Bihar had created "room for concern".
He also pointed out that the heavy snowfall must be seen in tandem with the other phenomena of global warming, higher degrees of convection and resultant rains accumulating in the river basins of the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra.
Mr Deora said the Red Cross has warned that impact of the floods in North India which could extend to neighbouring countries.
