India’s Himalayan hydropower projects face further controversy after reservoir flood gates were opened without warning on the Beas River in Himachal Pradesh, killing at least 5 people.
24 engineering students and a tour manager were swept away in floods on the Beas River near Mandi in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday 08 June 2014, after the flood gates of the Larji Hydro Power Project were opened.
The students were part of a group of around 65 visiting from Hyderabad’s VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and were in the river at the time the flood gates were opened. No warning was given. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has ordered an investigation.
Insia’s National Disaster Response Force have been carrying out search missions. 5 bodies have been recovered so far. The chances of finding survivors is very slim.
Hydropower projects in India’s Himalayas have been regularly criticised, and were blamed by some for the flood disaster in Uttarakhand, India, last year.
