A colossal disaster for a destroyed town

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Chamoli in Uttarakhand today in 1999, leading to 103 deaths, thousands of homes destroyed and the town cut off from aid due to landslides.

Post-earthquake view of the affected areas; Source: Public Domain

The Himalayan range is seismically very active - as it crushes against the tectonic Indian plate, and faults generated by these movements often result in earthquakes, mostly minor, but occasionally massive ones. One such earthquake struck Chamoli in 1999, being recorded as a 6.8 on the Richter scale. Chamoli was then part of Uttar Pradesh, present day Uttarakhand, and was badly hit.

The tremors and aftershocks were felt as nearby as Tehri Garhwal, Uttarkashi, Pauri Garhwal and Rudraprayag - all neighbouring districts, and as far as Lahore, Delhi, Kanpur, Shimla, Dehradun, Srinagar, Meerut, even till Nepal and the Nanda Devi mountain region - this was not a small tremor, indeed it had brought an unprecedented amount of destruction in the 5 districts next to each other over at Chamoli.

In several areas, the ground became deformed. Ground fissures occurred, landslides and change in groundwater flows were also noted. In Chamoli and nearby Gopeshwar, there were ground cracks in numerous places, and even asphalt roads were not spared the damage. Everything lay torn apart - land cut off many roads, especially in the Mandakini and Mandal valleys.

103 people were killed, several hundred were injured and thousands of homes were damaged. Electricity, water and communications were hit. In Chamoli, almost all houses and shops in the lower parts of the town collapsed. Irrigation and water pipelines got distributed.

As the rescue operations started, the true extent of the horror could be revealed - a 16km stretch of road was closed due to a landslide, and frantic efforts were undertaken to restore the road to open relief supplies going in. Before the army and paramilitary could arrive, locals carried out search and rescues in the destroyed parts of the town. Helicopters were used to drop personnel and food supplies wherever motorable roads were not available. Thus ended one of the most disastrous days in the hills.