Water body behind Amarnath Cave reason for flash floods? Government looking into it

Government is in action mode after flash floods at the Amarnath Cave in Kashmir Valley. The flash flood claimed lives of 15 people and injured more than 50. Flash floods had taken place last year as well but Amarnath Yatra did not take place due to COVID pandemic.

Sources in the government say that a water body has been found behind the Amarnath Cave. Unconfirmed reports suggest that this new water body was the reason for the flash floods this year as well as the last year. When the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha was asked about this water body, he said that he has no information about it nor do the engineers or scientists, but they are looking into it.

"I have no information about it, nor do the engineers or the scientists of the country, but if someone has, I can't comment on it, but I am asking some specialists to look into it and find out the details," said Manoj Sinha, LG Jammu and Kashmir.

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There were apprehensions this year about flash floods in the same area. The government had therfore asked the irrigation and flood control department to construct a boundary wall and divert the flow of water for safety of the Yatris. Government says that damage due to flash floods would have been extensive had the wall not been built.

"Some reports are saying that we did not take care. At the time of the flash floods last year and in 2015, we had asked the irrigation and flood control department to make a wall to while keeping the pattern of the flow of the water in mind, and many scientists I spoke with said if the wall wasn't made, the damage would have been much more," said Manoj Sinha, LG Jammu and Kashmir.

To safeguard the Amarnath Yatra, the government is getting a digital contour mapping of the area done by the Surveyor Director General of India and also in talks to scientists about what else can be done in the area.

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