By Chintan Sheth

Itanagar, Oct 30: Based on news agencies Eastern Sentinel and The Arunachal Times, around 1030 hrs 29th October people observed debris and fish surfacing from the waters of the Kameng river in East Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh. The reports also shared the total dissolved solids values tested by the East Kameng District Fisheries Development Officer to be around 6800 mg/litre; a total of five and a half times above the normal range of 300-1200 mg/litre. By 1300 hrs a video is posted on Twitter, a person narrates that the Kameng is black and the fish are unlikely to survive this mud.
 A look at satellite images taken on 29th October by PlanetScope satellites (courtesy of Planet Labs Inc) shows the debris flow along the Warriyang Bung river, a tributary of the Kameng upstream Marjangla, Khenewa circle, East Kameng district. The flood eroded valley is visible
Upstream this tributary are many glaciers glacial lakes. Marjangla is about 60km downstream where the fish were observed. Its not clear if there is still any danger present in the glaciers to cause another debris flow. The official advisory by Seppa Town Magistrate should be followed.
Routes for survey are best kept away from river and in higher ground. By the scale of the flood it seems the greatest damage occurred in the initial 30km of the river. A larger scale event in the future cannot be ruled out so caution is necessary.
There is unlikely to be any foul play by China as this region of glaciers is completely within Arunachal Pradesh, India. It is separated from Tibet by a 6000+ meter ridge-line and the Tibet side is full of glaciers.
The cause of such a flow event maybe natural, rainfall induced or temperature induced its not clear. There have not been any earthquakes in the vicinity of this area in the recent past. The only earthquakes that have occurred were 300+ km away in the Yigong Tsangpo valley between 1st and 12th October 2021 (M4-M5 magnitude), and were not on the Indian plate.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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