Himalayan Glacier Study reveals snow loss in Teesta basin

Gangtok June 17: A first-of-its-kind study to prepare an inventory of the Himalayan glaciers in the Indian sub-continent has revealed a loss in the glacial cover in the Teesta basin in the past fourteen years and the absence of snow in the sub-basins of the river like the Rangit.

The study named Snow and Glaciers of the Himalayas was conducted by the Union ministry of environment and forests in association with the Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre of ISRO.

The aim of the project was to find out the trend of the glaciers in the Indian Himalayan region over a period of four years from 2004-05 to 2007-08.

“According to this inventory there are 32,392 glaciers in the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins that drain into India. It is for the first time that such a detailed inventory with the help of satellite data has been published that contains figures indicating the advance or retreat of glaciers,” sources at the ministry of environment and forests said.

In the course of the study, in which around 2,500 glaciers were monitored including 34 of the Teesta, it has been found that in 1990 the 34 glaciers used to cover an area of 305sqkm. But in 2004 the area of the glacial cover on the Teesta basin was reduced by 4sqkm and 23 of the glaciers showed trends of retreat.

While eight were found advancing, the coverage area of three glaciers remained unaltered.

The Teesta basin is part of the Brahmaputra basin.

According to experts, the basins of the eastern Himalayan region reflected less retreat than those in the western Himalayas.

Experts said the loss of glacial cover and their retreat may lead to dry rivers or floods in the area.

The findings of the study has also indicated the presence of several supra-glacial lakes on the Brahmaputra basin.

These lakes are formed because of the melting of glaciers during the summer months.

The study revealed that there are 474 supra-glacier lakes spread over an area of 70.02sqkm in the Brahmaputra basin. Of them, 61 are in the Teesta basin.

“Existence of supra-glacial lakes could be hazardous and might cause loss to human life and property. These lakes can create crevasse and the entire water would empty in a few hours causing sudden inundation in the downstream,” said Animesh Bose, an environmentalist from north Bengal, said.

While monitoring the Himalayan glaciers in selected sub-basins of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim, experts have found that in the Rangit sub-basin the extent of snow cover during certain months of the year, has shown trends of reduction in 2007-08.

“During the study, it was found that earlier the snow cover in the glacier that feeds the Rangit sub-basin existed till April. But in 2007-08, no snow cover was found after February,” a source said.

The Rangit sub-basin, which originates from Sikkim, is part of the Teesta basin.

The study shows the Teesta has supra-glacial lakes spread over an area of 10.37sqkm. It also has two moraine dam lakes fed by glaciers spread over an area of 2.79 sqkm.

Environmentalists and experts said the loss of the glacial cover, even though low when compared to other the basins of the country, has commenced in this region.

During the study 10,106 glaciers have been found on the Brahmaputra basin, 16,049 in Ganga basin and 6,237 in the Indus basin.

“Several glaciers feeding the Teesta are retreating and areas in the upper reaches of the Sikkim Himalayas are drying up with less snow cover,” Bose said.

According to him, to prevent the retreat of glaciers, trees should be planted. More trees will result in rainfall in the lower areas and snowfall in the higher altitudes.

“Unless massive afforestation is done in these areas it is tough to encourage the advancement of glaciers and there can be severe climatic conditions in future added to inundation as indicated by the presence of supra-glacial lakes,” he said.

(The Telegraph)

Dalai Lama appeals to China for protecting Tibet’s Glaciers

21.11.2009

At a press conference in Rome, the Tibetan leader raised concerns about climate change and its devastating effects on Tibet’s landscape.

[Dalai Lama, Tibetan Spiritual Leader]:

"Some of the rivers which come from Tibetan glaciers or snow mountains, some within 15, 20 years may dry. So it is as we mentioned a very, very serious matter. .. So with full cooperation of Chinese experts, that we organize some experts to go to Tibet and study how much damage (has been) already done and what is the best way to protect (the environment), the best way to reduce the damage. I think that China is also in need, so (I think we should do it) with full cooperation with Chinese experts. I think that's one thing we can do."

The Dalai Lama said that it is important to cooperate with China over global warming.

He said that a political solution between Tibet and China may take time but the environment cannot wait.

[Dalai Lama, Tibetan Spiritual Leader]:

"I also think that the political solution (for Tibet) may take time - but that's ok, we can wait. But damaging the ecology, year by year, is happening. So we really need serious studies and to make a plan to protect (the environment). That's I think very, very important."

Global warming has a serious impact on Tibetan glaciers.

Sikkim eager to protect the environment around the Himalayas, says Chamling

Gangtok,Nov13:  Sikkim government will always like to become a willing partner in the regional endeavour to protect the Himalayas, Chief Minister, Pawan Kumar Chamling has said.

Mr. Chamling made the commitment to noted environmentalist Sundarlal Bahuguna’s call to the countries and states located in the Himalayas to evolve a policy to protect the mountain range from the impact of global warming and climate change.

The state government has taken a series of measures to protect the environment since Sikkim Democratic Front came power in 1994, Mr. Chamling told Mr. Bahuguna in a meeting here on Thursday.

There was a ban on grazing of cattle, free distribution of LPG cylinders in rural areas to dissuade the people from using woods and forest resources for fuel and constitution of a commission to study the glaciers were some of those measures, he said.

Indian study challenges global view on Himalayan glaciers

NEW DELHI: India on Monday challenged the internationally accepted view that the Himalayan glaciers were receding due to global warming. The glaciers, although shrinking in volume and constantly showing a retreating front, have not in any way exhibited any abnormal annual retreat of the order that some glaciers in Alaska and Greenland have reported, a state-of-the-art review of Glacial Studies, Glacial Retreat and Climate Change said.

Brought out by V.K. Raina, former Deputy Director-General, Geological Survey of India, for the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the discussion paper on the Himalayan glaciers points out that it was premature to make a statement that the glaciers were retreating abnormally because of global warming.

The study says a glacier is affected by a range of physical features and a complex interplay of climatic factors, and it is, therefore, unlikely that the snout movement of any glacier can be claimed to be the result of periodic climate variation until many centuries of observations become available.

While glacier movements are primarily due to climate and snowfall, snout movements appear to be peculiar to each glacier, the paper adds.

Releasing the documents, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said that while most Himalayan glaciers were retreating, some were advancing as well. This included the Siachen glacier.

“Some glaciers are retreating at a declining rate, like the Gangotri, and the overall health of the Himalayan glaciers was poor as the debris cover had reached alarming proportions,” he said, citing the paper.

Mr. Ramesh added that there was no conclusive scientific evidence to show that global warming was resulting in the glacial retreats. Contrary to what most believe, there can be no comparison between the Arctic glaciers and the Himalayan glaciers, as the former are at sea-level and the latter at a very high altitude.

According to Mr. Raina, all glaciers under observation in the Himalayan region during the past three decades have shown cumulative negative mass balance (determined by annual snow precipitation). Degradation of the glacier mass has been the highest in Jammu and Kashmir, relatively lower in Himachal Pradesh, even less in Uttarakhand, and the lowest in Sikkim — showing a declining trend from the north-west to the north-east.

Irrespective on latitudinal difference, glacier melt contributes to about 25-30 per cent of the total discharge of glacier ice, with maximum discharge in mid-July and August.

Assuring several steps to study the Himalayan glaciers scientifically and arrive at a final conclusion, Mr. Ramesh said he would bring the discussion paper to the notice of R.K. Pachauri, chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and other agencies that have warned of doom due to melting glaciers.

Aarti Dhar

Sikkim CM Pawan Chamling to attend Himalayan states environment conclave in Shimla

Gangtok, Oct 27 : The impact of climate change in the Himalayan region will be high on the agenda when the chief ministers of five northern states meet in Shimla on Thursday during a conference.

The two-day conference, starting October 29 here, would be attended by the chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttrakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, besides senior officers, technocrats, research scholars and NGOs, Additional chief secretary (Environment) Sarojni Ganju Thakur told reporters today in Shimla.

Union minister of state for Environment and Forest (Independent charge), Jairam Ramesh, will also be present during the conclave on Indian Himalayas, she added.

She said that delegates would discuss the issue of changing landscape of Indian iimalayas, Implications of climate Change on eco lystems and Livelihoods.

She said that glaciers were receding very rapidly in the Himalayan states due to change in climatic conditions. She said that recent studies in Himachal show that there was a 21 per cent decline in the size of glaciers in the state.

The feed back from the two day conclave would be added to national level Chief Minister’s and Environment Ministers’ Conference with the Prime Minister to formulate a uniform strategy and action plan for checking enviornment degradation.

She said that feed back from the consensus on the broader issues related to environment, emerging out of the conclave would also be implemented as Action Plan at the state level and would be formulated as the Himalayan Preservation Mission.

She said that prominent NGO’s, institutions and self help groups from the Himalayan states have also been invited to attended the two day conclave.

Melting Himalayan glaciers endanger Bhutan,Sikkim and North East India

Mount Jomolhar the highest peak in Bhutan.

Reports indicate that the melting of the Himalayan glaciers is threatening the kingdom of Bhutan, the impacts of which will adversely affect the entire South Asian region including Bhutan,Sikkim and north-east India.

According to a report in Nature News, glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating faster than in any other part of the world and they could disappear completely by 2035. This puts the mountainous nation of Bhutan at a special risk. In an area smaller than Switzerland, it has 983 glaciers and 2,794 glacial lakes, some of which have burst to produce deadly glacial lake floods.

A nation without even its own helicopter, Bhutan lacks the resources to combat global warming. It is carrying out the work at Thorthormi glacier with the help of money from various international donors.

As the first nation to get adaptation money from the Least Developed Countries Fund, Bhutan is something of a pioneer among developing nations in their quest to adapt to a warmer future, and the struggles at Thorthormi glacier illustrate the enormous obstacles that adaptation efforts still face. It is only within the past decade that researchers realized that Thorthormi could pose a threat. Thorthormi’s ponds were expanding and merging to form larger bodies of water. The changes have been dramatic even in the past few months. “Just before we started our work here in July this year, that part of the lake was water,” said Karma Toeb, the project’s glaciologist and team leader, pointing down to a number of icebergs. “The ice blocks have been breaking off the mother glacier upstream,” he added.

According to Thinley Namgyel, the deputy chief environment officer at the National Environment Commission in Thimphu, “A few decades down the line, the glaciers will retreat and we are not sure what impact it will have on the economy.” But, the impacts of the melting of the Himalayan glaciers will reach far beyond Bhutan’s borders. The glacier-fed rivers that flow south from the Himalayas are the arteries of south Asia.

It is estimated that the retreat of glaciers will affect the water supply of roughly 750 million people across South Asia and China, according to Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Across Asia, there are countless cases like Thorthormi, where the needs are great and the resources scarce. Regarding the effects of climate change and their costs, “every single estimate that people have come up with has been exceeded by reality”, said Dr. Pachauri. “The impacts of climate change are clearly turning out to be much worse than what we had anticipated earlier,” he added.