Devprayag before and after the floods

See the damage done to the famous confluence at Devprayag, where the two mighty streams of the Ganga come together and officially form the Ganga or the Ganges river - the most famous and important river of South Asia!

Whereas prior to the calamitous two days of 15th and 16th June 2013, the rivers flowed down their respective gorges to meet at this temple town, pilgrims descended to the steps of the ghat at the sangam or meeting point and the little temple had brisk visitation, the pillars of the halls held up three layers of havan-worthy plinths and life went on in the little temple town which was accessible from a swinging suspension bridge over the Bhagirathi.

Then on the night of 15th June and throughout the day of 16th June, the rains just kept coming down and didn't let up. Massive amounts of water poured down the rivers, the water levels rose and rose, and the landscape was changed forever! The Alaknanda dashed repeatedly against the hillside and carved out a new course for itself, using large boulders and rocks as ammunition, leaving a tiny island stranded in the middle of its course. Meanwhile, the river level rose so much on a permanent basis, that even weeks after the flood, the ghats and the lower plinths have all gone underwater, and the water level now laps at the pillars of the upper-most platform, almost touching the temple itself... Before long, all these structures would have disappeared, when the next big flood comes in, and there will be more. Such is the young and brash nature of the Himalaya and an eco-system that is both emperilled and in flux.

This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of tens of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and [email protected].