The Mountain Bleeding Underground: Santa thinks a new railway tunnel is pure engineering progress, but Banta reveals a hidden geological crisis. Discover the science of “Hydraulic Short-Circuiting” and why punching massive holes through the Himalayas is drying up surface springs while setting the stage for deep-seated landslide disasters.
Groundwater
The Squeezed Sponge and the Cloudburst Catalyst
The Squeezed Sponge Crisis: Why are Himalayan mountaintops drying up while tunneling projects happen thousands of feet below? Santa and Banta explore “Tunnel-Induced Drainage Syndrome” and how draining a mountain’s internal water setup prepares a catastrophic trapdoor for the next monsoon cloudburst.
Santa’s “Scar of the Mountain” vs. Banta’s “Hidden Womb of Water”
Internal erosion or piping of fines from the landslide debris often results in the formation of perched aquifers and therefore most water sources in the Himalayan region are in close proximity of old landslide debris.
The Wisdom of the Wetland and Santa’s Concrete Fever
Wetlands are nature’s flood mitigation warriors – these absorb floodwaters as also help groundwater recharge. Wetland conservation is thus an eco-DRR approach that needs to be promoted.
Why is Joshimath sinking
Why is Joshimath sinking all of a sudden is an obvious question that comes to the mind of people following incidences in Uttarakhand. Piping of finer material embedded in the old slide material on the valley slope by the breach of some confined aquifer and accompanying distress seems to be the logical explanation. Scientific and technical institutions investigating the causes of distress are sure to add value to this assumption.
Tradition of groundwater prospecting in Himalayas
Survival in the mountainous terrain, with scarce water availability despite ample rains, would not have been possible without mastering the art of water harvesting. The people of the region therefore observed natural processes related to water, ensured this knowledge being transferred from one generation to other, and experiemented to maximise water availability. Seeking answers to […]
Traditional knowledge: Groundwater presence
Just imagine that the early settlers in the Himalayan region were aware of the intricacies of Hydrological Cycle, groundwater presence, means of enhancing groundwater recharge, and had even mastered the art of groundwater exploration. Hope this is no testing time for the limits of your imagination. What if I say that by the end of this […]