From: Tribune India
Published November 11, 2008 09:37 AM
Himalayan glaciers may disappear by 2035
The glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part
of the world and, if the present rate continues, a large number of them may
disappear by 2035 because of climate change, warn Indian and foreign
environmentalists and geologists.
The Himalayas have the largest concentration of glaciers outside the polar
caps. That is why, they are called the “Water Towers of Asia.”
The Himalayas lie to the north of the Indian subcontinent and to the south
of the central Asian high plateau. They are bound by the Indus on the west
slope of Mt Nanga Parbat (near Gilgit), and in the west, by river Jaizhug Qu
on the eastern slope of Mt Namjabarwa.
The Geological Survey of India claims that the Himalayan glaciers occupy
about 17 per cent of the total mountainous range, while an additional 30 to
40 per cent area has seasonal snow cover.
In the whole of the Himalayan range, independent geologists claim that there
are 18,065 small and big glaciers with a total area of 34,659.62 km2 and a
total ice volume of 3,734.4796 km3. The major clusters of glaciers are
around the 10Himalayan peaks and massifs: Nanga Parbat (Gilgit), the Nanda
Devi group in Garhwal, the Dhaulagiri massif, the Everest-Makalu group, the
Kanchenjunga, the Kula Kangri area, and Namche Bazaar.
The Indian Himalayan glaciers are broadly divided into three-river basins of
the Indus, Ganga and Barahmaputra. The Indus basin has the largest number of
glaciers (3,538), followed by the Ganga basin (1,020) and the Barahmaputra
(662).
The principal glaciers are: Siachen 72 km; Gangotri 26 km; Zemu 26 km; Milam
19 km and Kedarnath 14.5 km. The Gangotri glacier has retreated by about 850
m.
One may believe it or not but the climate change is real and happening now
and it is causing a serious impact on fragile ecosystems like glaciers.
Seventy per cent of the world’s freshwater is frozen in glaciers. Glacier
melt buffers other ecosystems against climate variability. Very often, it
provides the only source of water for humans and the biodiversity during dry
seasons.
The Himalayan glaciers feed seven of Asia’s great rivers: the Ganga, Indus,
Barahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and Huang Ho. About 70 per cent of
glaciers are retreating at a startling rate in the Himalayas due to climate
change.
The Glacial melt has started affecting freshwater flows with dramatic
adverse effects on the biodiversity, and people and livelihoods, with a
possible long-term implication on regional food security.
The WWF’s India, Nepal and China chapters some time back carried out a
massive study ” Glaciers, glacier retreat and its impact’ on freshwater as a
major issue, not just in the national context but also at a regional and
trans-boundary level.
New data collected by scientists at the Jawaharlal Nehru University has
shown that glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating faster than anywhere
else in the world. Together with those on the neighbouring Tibetan mountain
plateau, the Himalayan glaciers make up the largest body of ice outside the
Polar regions.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)’s scientist, professor Syed
Hasnain, in a recent study claimed that “All the glaciers in the middle
Himalayas are retreating, and they could disappear from the central and
eastern Himalayas by 2035.”
As the chairman of the International Commission for Snow and Ice’s (ICSI)
working group on Himalayan Glaciology, Hasnain was then quoted by The New
Scientist in the June 5, 1999, issue, in which also he had warned that “most
of the glaciers in the Himalayan region will vanish within 40 years as a
result of global warming”. The article also predicted that freshwater flow
in rivers across South Asia would “eventually diminish, resulting in
widespread water shortages.”
The Tribune in mid-July carried a special report quoting American
environment guru Lester R. Brown, who warned that the way Indian glaciers
were melting because of climate change, the Ganga may turn into a ``mausmi
nadi’’ before the turn of this century as its origin - the Gangotri glacier
- was shrinking at an alarming speed. “Many Himalayan glaciers could melt
entirely by 2035,” Brown has also warned.
The giant Gangotri glacier supplies 70 per cent of the Ganga flow during the
dry season. A study carried out by the India’s Department of Science and
Technology has found the Gangotri glacier shrinking at a pace of 17 m a year
due to global warming and climate change. Its mammoth neighbour Pindari
glacier is also reportedly melting at a speed of about 9.5 m a year. The
Gangotri glacier is the outlet of one of the largest glacier systems in the
Himalayas, and the source of the Bhagirathi, one of the major tributaries of
the Ganga.
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