Bhutan Glacial Lake Outburst: Flood Alert in Bengal, Assam

A glacial lake outburst flood was reported on Thursday evening, 29 October, from Shintaphu lake in Bhutan’s Gasa district, and officials in West Bengal and Assam put the Sankosh river belt on alert overnight. Floodwater was reported moving down the Mofu river towards the Sankosh, which Bhutan calls the Punatsangchhu, according to Aaj Tak. A Government of India advisory warned that water levels could rise sharply in Alipurduar in West Bengal and Dhubri in Assam, and no casualties had been reported by early Friday morning.

Sirens and Safe Distances on the Sankosh

West Bengal Forest and Environment Minister Manoj Kumar Oraon said the water could reach the Kumargram stretch of the Sankosh within one to one and a half hours of his warning and asked residents to alert one another. Cooch Behar minister Nisith Pramanik, quoted by IANS, said people living in the Sankosh catchment and along connected tributaries had been told to move to safe distances.

Aaj Tak reported that sirens were sounded through the night and that villagers in Upper Sankosh forest village, NKC Sankosh Tea Garden, Chengmari, Jharaguri and Pakriguri were moved to safer ground. NDRF and SDRF teams were reported at Tufanganj and Boxirhat on the river. Alerts also covered the Darjeeling hills, Jalpaiguri and Dhubri.

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What Is Still Unconfirmed

The size of the outburst is not yet clear. Voice of Sikkim, which carried the first reports, said the scale of the flood was subject to official confirmation, and neither outlet quoted a river-level reading or a discharge figure. One BJP MP, Raju Bista, named a different lake, Lemthang, in a post on X, so the source lake rests on the Aaj Tak report for now. An unnamed official of Bhutan’s National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology told the paper that Shintaphu is one of 17 potentially dangerous glacial lakes in the country and that no alert had been issued from its monitoring station when the first reports came in.

The advisory estimated that water could reach the India-Bhutan border six to eight hours after the outburst. That window falls on Friday morning.

Rain Already Adds to the Flood Risk

The alert comes while the eastern states are dealing with heavy rain. IPB News reported earlier that IMD had warned of flood risk in Odisha and Bengal for 30 October, and the aftermath of Cyclone Arnab is still being counted in several states. More weather alerts are listed in the Weather Updates section.

Residents of the Sankosh banks have been asked to follow district administration and NDRF instructions. Water levels at Kumargram, Boxirhat and Dhubri are the figures to watch through Friday.

Source: Based on reporting by Aaj Tak, The Voice of Sikkim and The Statesman.

Image: Ministry of Health Bhutan via Tshogpa, Laya.