Indian Scientist Reprimanded For 2004 Report Predicting Glacial Lake Flood That Killed 5,500 In 2013
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“Chaurabari Lake Will Explode Like a Bomb Anytime,” read a front-page headline about the report in the Indian newspaper Dainik Jagran in 2004. The story was based on a report prepared by D.P. Dobhal, the Wadia Institute’s head of glaciology, said Lakshmi Prasad Pant, who wrote the story for Dainik Jagran.
“I had managed to get a copy of the report from my sources in the institute,” said Pant, who now heads the Jaipur edition of the newspaper. “After getting the report, I was looking for Dr Dobhal, the author of the report. “I traced him right up there at the base of Chaurabari Lake, and he told me exactly those words: ... ‘the lake will explode like a bomb’, and explained to me the geological details. But after I did the report, all hell broke loose,” he said.
SCIENTIST REPRIMANDED
The scientist “was severely reprimanded by the government for ‘leaking the report’ and ‘sensationalising the issue’ and the institute sent me a notice and published it in their records that my entry there was banned for life,” Pant said.
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Dobhal said the “Himalayan tsunami” that killed more than 5,500 people in Uttarakhand in June was the result of days of heavy rain in the region and an associated avalanche at the lake that burst its banks. Rain was so heavy that after June 14, it cut off all communication between the Wadia Institute in Dehradum, where Dobhal is located, and the monitoring watchtower at Chaurabari glacier, he said, which meant he did not receive information about what was likely to happen.
EDIT
http://www.trust.org/item/20131212233339-ewu52/
