5 glacial lakes have high susceptibility to GLOFs
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 31: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said the Government has been regularly clearing its financial liabilities, including dues to contractors and retired employees, with over Rs 18,000 crore paid during financial year 2025-26.
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Replying to a question of BJP MLA Sham Lal Sharma in the Legislative Assembly, Omar, who holds charge of the Finance Department, said “the financial liabilities of the Government in the shape of bills presented at treasuries are cleared on regular basis. Bills pertaining to contractors and retired employees are also cleared at regular intervals”.
He said liabilities in the form of bills presented at treasuries are being cleared on a regular basis and at periodic intervals.
Raising supplementary, Sham Lal Sharma, however, said the Chief Minister has stated that there is no backlog in the treasuries which is not the reality on ground.
“The backlog is there. There has been huge mismatch between cash flow and expenditure,” he said.
Sham’s party colleague RS Pathania said during last two years, no payments have been made for the works done under ‘bad pocket initiative’ in Udhampur district. The funds should be released immediately, he demanded.
Omar said a total of Rs 18,382.26 crore have been paid so far by the department of Finance.
Omar said during 2025-26 financial year ending March 31, payments have been made across multiple heads, including Rs 7,800.58 crore towards contractor bills, Rs 5,821.43 crore under General Provident Fund (GPF), Rs 2,864.14 crore as gratuity, Rs 1,123.22 crore for commutation and Rs 773.47 crore towards leave salary.
He added that most of the bills under these categories have been cleared up to March 27, 2026, while GPF claims have been settled up to December 31, 2025.
Addressing concerns regarding pending liabilities, he said dues are being systematically cleared and there is a structured mechanism in place to ensure timely payments. On the issue of division-wise allocation, the Chief Minister clarified that funds are allocated and accounted for based on “Heads of Expenditure” rather than on a divisional basis, and payments in treasuries are recorded accordingly.
Meanwhile, in written reply to another question in the Assembly tabled by NC MLA Tanvir Sadiq, Omar said at least five glacial lakes in the Kashmir Himalaya have “very high susceptibility” to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), even though they are not immediately unstable.
“A preliminary geospatial analysis was conducted to map downstream exposure of glacial lakes, identifying habitations and critical infrastructure along potential flood paths in districts like Ganderbal, Shopian and Kulgam,” he said, adding the study was recently conducted by the University of Kashmir, published in the Journal of Glaciology, assessed 155 glacial lakes using hydro-geomorphic indicators such as lake expansion rate, dam stability and surrounding conditions.
According to the study, around 2,704 buildings, nearly 15 major bridges, road segments and at least one Hydropower Project could be affected in the event of a glacial lake outburst flood — a high-magnitude catastrophic flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake.
“The study identified Bramsar, Chirsar, Nundkol, Gangabal and Bhagsar lakes as falling under the ‘very high susceptibility’ category,” he said.
However, the Government stressed that such classification does not mean an imminent threat, but indicates a higher likelihood of outburst only under specific triggering conditions”, he said.
The Chief Minister said the assessment provides a baseline for understanding vulnerability and prioritising future detailed studies.
Highlighting gaps in accurate risk estimation, the study said that precise assessment of GLOFs requires reliable data on glacial lake volumes, which can only be obtained through field-based bathymetric measurements- finding out depth and topography of water bodies-currently unavailable for most Himalayan lakes. It added that work in this direction has already been initiated by researchers.
To strengthen scientific assessment, the Department of Geo-informatics, University of Kashmir has procured a high-precision RTK-enabled robotic echo-sounding boat with support from the Ministry of Earth Sciences, it added.
“Bathymetric surveys of at-risk glacial lakes in the western Himalaya are planned for 2026, aimed at improving hydrodynamic modelling and downstream risk evaluation”.
The study pointed out that these high-susceptibility lakes pose potential risks to downstream infrastructure.
Outlining mitigation measures, Omar said that continuous monitoring of vulnerable lakes through remote sensing and field assessments is being prioritised.
He added that early-warning systems, ecozonation plans for downstream areas and integration of GLOF risk scenarios into district-level disaster preparedness frameworks are part of the future strategy.
Researchers are also working on developing tailored GLOF early-warning systems for mountainous regions, integrating satellite monitoring, field observations, sensor-based hydro-meteorological inputs and near real-time communication systems to ensure timely detection and dissemination of hazard information, it said.
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