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What caused the landslide?

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

A cloudburst, high in the reaches of the Himalayas, may have been the cause of it all.

Seven kilometres above Malpa, the Uttar Pradesh village ravaged by the biggest-ever landslide in the history of the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage, starts a rivulet. From the 4,924-metre height at its origin, it flows down, losing 2,724 metres by the time it plunges into river Kali near Malpa.

Which means that the rivulet, even when not swollen, doesn't flow -- it falls. At a very, very steep angle. And when there is a flash flood, caused by a cloudburst, for instance, it turns into a monster, devouring everything in its path -- rocks, boulders, land, village...

Was this what happened in the early hours of Tuesday?

Geological Survey of India Senior Deputy General Ravi Shankar believes so. The area around Malpa is very prone to landslides, he says. Darchala, about 60 kilometres from Malpa, had witnessed major earthquakes in the 1970s. A cloudburst at the source of the Malpa rivulet may have led to floods. This, in turn, would have triggered off the landslide, owing to the steepness of its flow.

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