IIT Roorkee Committed To Rebuilding Lives In Uttarakhand: Director

NEW DELHI: A year has passed since Uttarakhand was ravaged by floods, but the Himalayan state still lies in shambles. Hoping to avoid future disasters, IIT Roorkee is studying the "dynamic behavior" of the rivers, which have changed their course, to adopt suitable measures, says its director Pradipta Banerji.

The institute is also planning to channelize the skills of local artisans to develop new design paradigms.

Highlighting that some of Uttarakhand's rivers like Alaknanda, Mandakini, Asiganga and Bhagirathi have undergone "major morphological changes" in the last few years due to cloud bursts and consequent flooding, Banerji stressed on the need for studying their unpredictable behaviour.

"Rivers have shifted from their due course due to bank erosion, while at other locations, severe aggradation and degradation in the river beds have occurred. IIT Roorkee has identified that there is a need for studying the dynamic behaviour of the river so that suitable measures could be adopted for protections of river banks and structures," Banerji, a recipient of the National Science Talent Scholarship in India, told IANS in an e-mail interview.

He added that researchers at the institute's department of civil engineering are addressing issues like assessment of floods in Uttarakhand's major rivers in view of cloud bursts; carrying out detailed studies for the reaches of rivers in proximity of habitations using satellite images; and also identifying critical and vulnerable sites along the rivers in respect of bank erosion, shifting of rivers, inundation, aggradation and degradation.

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