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TRIBUNE IMPACT Aditi Tandon writes from Leh A day after The Tribune highlighted the fate of a 35-year-old Leh woman who lost one daughter to the August 6 flash floods and had no resources left to educate the other, the Union government today stepped in to the rescue of the family. It said it would sponsor 11-year-old Skalzang Angmo through all levels up to higher education. The government would also reimburse the cost of transporting Skalzang back to Chandigarh by air. The child and her mother are currently putting up at Himak Relief Camp at Choglamsar. Skalzang had been selected for admission to Class VI at Chandigarh JNV this year, but she was in no position to get back to school to complete admission formalities as the family had lost everything in the flash floods. Stanzan Dolma’s elder daughter Denchen Paldon had got washed away in the cloudburst from her native Choglamsar village (in Leh). She was a Class VIII topper at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), Chandigarh. The government also sanctioned an ex gratia of Rs 50,000 following Denchen’s death. And the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, for its part, separately sanctioned an equal amount as ex gratia. The money will also go to her mother. Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said: “We will do everything for this child. Her education will be government’s responsibility. I got the ex gratia sanctioned on priority. The cost of bringing the child to Chandigarh for admission to JNV will also be on us, on me personally.” Sibal called up The Tribune this morning to convey the government’s response. JNV (Chandigarh) principal PK Sharma, meanwhile, has said every JNV in the country was calling up to support the surviving child. “We now plan to form a trust for Skalzang, preferably with the help of The Tribune,” he said. NVS chief Manoj Singh said the child would be taken care of at all levels and a corpus would be created for her future. The Navodaya principal is convening a meeting this Monday to chalk out a strategy on how to manage the money that was pouring in for Skalzang following The Tribune report.
Cloudburst, nothing else, behind Leh floods: Scientists
Scientists at the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research in Ladakh have concluded that the flash floods of August 6 that devastated 23 villages of Leh were indeed caused by a cloudburst. They have challenged the theories that discount the role of a cloudburst in the tragedy. Analysing the weather data of past five years, defence scientists, in a report “Evaluation of Climate Change in Ladakh Sector and Causes of Cloudburst on August 6 at Leh”, said low temperatures and unusually high relative humidity levels this year led to the formation of dense low clouds in the Valley. Since vapour content in these clouds was very high and the same condensed further as the clouds attempted to cross the glaciers, they failed to retain water droplets and burst, causing cataclysmic flooding in the sector. In 2006 also, Leh had witnessed flash floods after glaciers melted due to prevailing high temperatures in July that year. There was, however, no destruction then. This time, the temperatures remained low but humidity kept rising, leading to new formations and a cloudburst. “Since the rainfall was absent on August 3, 4 and 5 and was negligible post the day of the tragedy on August 7, 8 and 9, the theory of the occurrence of a cloudburst in Leh due to prolonged winters this year gets reinforced. Also, we need to rethink whether to continue addressing Ladakh as a cold arid desert, as arid, desert conditions are now thinning,” Shashi Bala Singh, the institute director told The Tribune. In their report, the scientists cited weather statistics to draw comparison between the 2006 flash floods, which caused no casualty, and the August 6 calamity that almost flattened the district. In 2006, the high temperatures in July (up to 29 degrees) combined with relatively low humidity levels (50 per cent) caused glacial melting and normal flooding. This year, weather systems rapidly altered to cause sudden climate changes on the night of August 6, which saw devastating floods for 35 minutes. First, increased temperatures and hot summers in the plains led to increased evaporation and cloud formation in Ladakh this time. This led to extended winters up to May this year . Further, bright sunshine in June and July led to the melting of snow, taking relative humidity levels to 70 per cent in July as against 50 per cent in 2006.
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