'A river never forgets': Why one side of Uttarkashi's Dharali vanished, the other survived

The flash flood that tore through Dharali in Uttarkashi this week was not an anomaly but a brutal reminder of a river’s immutable logic. As TOI reported, the Kheer Gad did not change course, it simply returned to the path it had carved over centuries, sweeping away homes and shops built on its historic floodplain.

Satellite imagery and drone footage reveal the chilling precision of the destruction: one side of the village lies scoured bare, while the opposite bank remains eerily untouched, as if the flood followed an invisible instruction. Geologists argue this was no accident of nature, but a direct consequence of ignoring basic river dynamics.

Professor MPS Bisht, head of geology at HNB Garhwal University, explained the science behind the devastation. “When a river flows around a bend, it typically takes on a convex and concave shape. The water strikes harder on the convex side - this is where scouring and erosion take place. On the concave side, the flow slows and sediments collect,” he was cited by TOI as saying.

The Kheer Gad’s floodwaters, swollen by monsoon rains, hammered the outer bank where Dharali’s bazaar had encroached, flattening structures in moments. The inner bank, where silt had naturally built up, was spared.

The destruction follows a grim pattern. In 2013, the same stream buried a national highway under debris. “We’ve forgotten the river’s right of way,” said senior geologist Piyoosh Rautela, cited by TOI. “Himalayan rivers are not gentle flows you can negotiate with. They are geomorphic agents. They carved these valleys. Their floodplains are not real estate. They are part of the river.”

The flood’s aftermath, as per TOI report, appears almost diagrammatic, a stark illustration of what happens when human settlements ignore geological reality. Rautela’s warning echoes a broader crisis in the Himalayas, where unchecked construction on unstable slopes and riverbeds has amplified disasters. The Kheer Gad’s latest reckoning, experts say, was inevitable.