Mussoorie, Aug. 18 -- A 1.5km-long artificial lake in the Bhagirathi river in Uttarkashi district that formed in the aftermath of the August 5 flash floods has begun to recede, easing the worries of residents in Harsil, officials said on Sunday. According to officials aware of the details, a small deposit of sand has emerged in the lake, indicating a steady fall in water levels. Uttarkashi district disaster management officer Shardul Gusain said continuous manual channelisation work and removal of logs trapped in the lake has created a passage for water flow. "This has led to a quick recession of water and now a small island of silt deposit is visible in the lake, which is an indication of the pace at which water is receding," he said. The lake was created after the flow of the Bhagirathi was blocked in the wake of the flash floods. "The cloudburst incident that occurred in the Kheer Ganga and Telgad at Dharali and Harsil, respectively, on August 5 brought a huge volume of debris, including boulders, silt and vegetative material. It has accumulated in the bed of the Bhagirathi near Harsil and obstructed approximately 75% of the river's width at the location where the river bed slope is almost flat and resulted in the formation of an artificial lake upstream of the blockage, which is approximately 1.5-km-long and about 8 to 10 metres in depth," MS Nath, executive engineer (civil) of Maneri Dam in Uttarkashi, said last week. To mitigate the threat, a team of over two dozen engineers and workers from multiple departments was dispatched to Harsil to manage the situation. Teams from the SDRF and the irrigation department are engaged in clearing the obstruction manually to ensure a steady flow of the river....