The village of Raini is near the area that saw the most destruction from the flash floods.
The device was lost in 1965 during a secret expedition to Nanda devi conducted by the CIA and IB to place nuclear powered surveillance equipment on top of the mountain, the second highest in India (after Kanchenjunga) to spy on China.
However, the mountaineering team leading the expedition got caught in a snowstorm and had to return, leaving the device at the base of the mountain. A year later, when they returned to the area, they couldn’t find him; Subsequent expeditions have also failed to trace the device, which has a lifespan of over 100 years and is believed to still be found somewhere in the area.
On Sunday, the day that flash floods hit the area near the Raini village in the Chamoli district, which is situated in the Nanda Devi biosphere, villagers said they noticed an extremely pungent odor in the air as the dirt and debris from the mountain rolled into the Rishiganga River.
“The smell was so strong that we couldn’t breathe for some time. If it had been just debris and snow, it wouldn’t have had that smell. This has raised concerns in our village that the long-lost radioactive device, which our elders used to tell us about, may be behind the incident, ”said Deveshwari Devi, a resident of Jugju village, from where several men had served as porters during the 1965 expedition.
Incidentally, Imarti Devi, wife of one of the expedition’s porters, Kartik Singh, now 90, also died in the flash floods on Sunday after being washed away by the raging waters of the Rishiganga.
Villagers’ concern about the radioactive device is also due to the fact that the Nanda Devi (West) base camp is located right where the Rishiganga Gorge is located, from which the Rishiganga River emerges.
“During the 1965 expedition, we are told that the mountaineering team faced bad weather while on base camp and had to leave the device in a safe place there. If the device is buried under the snow somewhere in the area and radiates heat, then of course there would be more snowmelt and more avalanches. We urge the government to immediately begin a search operation for the device before there are more disasters, ”said Sangram Singh Rawat, another villager who along with his family has spent the night in the forest near the village of Raini in fear since the Sunday disaster.
It should be noted that in 2018, the tourism minister Satpal maharaj He had raised the issue of the radioactive device contaminating the snow seeping from the Nanda Devi mountain range into the Ganges and had urged Prime Minister Modi to take urgent action on it.
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