The news agency confirmed the incident by sharing a video recorded by Tashi Sherpa who was trying to climb the eighth-highest mountain in the world at 8,163 meters.
Also Read: Watch: Massive avalanche plunges down trail behind Kedarnath Temple
In the video, it was visible how the mega avalanche descended towards the base camp. The mountain climber further confirmed that a few tents were destroyed in the avalanche. But there have been no causalities till now. He informed me that more than three dozen tents were destroyed by the avalanche on Sunday.
Due to this avalanche, several companies have called off their expedition camps for the season. The last week's avalanche not only injured many people but also killed two of them. Over a dozen of people were left injured including an Indian from the base camp after the avalanche ripped through just below camp 4 on 26 September, according to the Tourism Department of Nepal.
It is worth noting that the weather department has not been very favourable for the mountaineers all through the season. There were cases of repeated avalanches this season. Over 400 permits were issued by the Department of Tourism to climb Manaslu this year. But the unfavourable weather condition might not let these mountaineers utilise these permits this time.
An avalanche is basically a snow slide down a slop on a hill or mountain. There can be multiple reasons of avalanche ranging from excessive precipitation (or a decreasing snowpack), or as a result of external sources such as people, animals, and earthquakes.
Large avalanches carries the potential of catching and even moving ice, rocks and trees. Factors behind avalanche could be heavy snowfall, increased human activities, wind direction, steep slopes, warm temperatures, layers of snow, and earthquakes.
For better information and early warnings before such kind of avalanches, Indian Army and the Defence Geoinformatics and Research Establishment (DGRE) have jointly installed the Avalanche Monitoring Radar. This is India's first of its kind avalanche monitoring system and is established in north Sikkimm in September this year.
Along with avalanches, this radar will help in issuing early warning for landslides. This radar was made operational by the Defence Research and Development Organisation's wing DGRE.
( With inputs from ANI)
