Environment
Study says Badrinath glacier collapse may hit 398 buildings
The Indian Express·
A DRDO-funded study says collapse of the largest hanging glacier above Badrinath could damage nearly 398 buildings. The worst case also hits 2.66 km of roads, two bridges, a helipad and a parking area. IISc, Cambridge and DRDO researchers published the paper in Landslides on October 28. The riskiest glacier holds about 5.32 million cubic metres of ice.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Authors urge avalanche impact and buffer zones and curbs on new construction near runout paths.
- Modelling did not show the Badrinath shrine being hit directly, though debris could still reach it.
- Badrinath sits at about 3,415 metres and drew around 1.7 million visitors in the 2025 Char Dham yatra.
What's Happening
- Three hanging glaciers between 4,700 and 5,465 metres were assessed with satellite imagery and avalanche simulations.
- The second site showed peak modelled velocity of 78.5 metres per second and flow height of 73.5 metres.
- An earlier paper this April identified 219 hanging glaciers, with about 30 percent in the Alaknanda basin.
How the Model Was Built
- Glaciers with mean slopes of 30 degrees or more near the town were screened for instability.
- The team flagged uncertainty in friction parameters and volumes drawn from remote sensing, not field measurements.
- Co-author Anil V Kulkarni said the method could be standardised for other towns below hanging glaciers.
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