A new study based on the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) data says smaller glaciers are retreating at a faster rate than bigger ones, contrary to an environment and forest ministry report.
A new study based on the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) data says smaller glaciers are retreating at a faster rate than bigger ones, contrary to an environment and forest ministry report.
HT Image
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
The ministry had said depletion of Himalayan glaciers had slowed down and some of the glaciers were even advancing. The joint team of WWF-India and Birla Institute of Technology released the study Witnessing Change: Glaciers in the Indian Himalayas on Tuesday that blamed climate change for faster depletion of glaciers.
The study is based on monitoring of Himalayan glaciers by the Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre of Isro.
A report of former deputy director general of Geological Survey of India, V.K. Raina, released by Environment minister Jairam Ramesh early this month had failed to find any link between climate change and melting of glaciers.
The Himalayas are one of the richest ice zones in the world with 9,000 to 12,000 glaciers. But, United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 said most of these glaciers would melt by 2030 due to global warming.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
“Smaller glaciers are vulnerable to local climate variations,” said Ravi Singh, secretary general of WWF-India, who opted for a middle path between the government and IPCC.
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
“Smaller glaciers are vulnerable to local climate variations,” said Ravi Singh, secretary general of WWF-India, who opted for a middle path between the government and IPCC.
{{/usCountry}}
“Small glaciers are more likely to face the brunt of the changes in climate owing to their smaller and less snowfall receiving accumulation zones. On the other hand, large glaciers might sustain the impacts for a longer time due to their larger ice volume and bigger accumulation zone.”
The study based on glaciers in five major river basins — Sutlej, Jhelum, Bhagirathi, Brahmaputra and Tista — says glaciers are retreating at an annual rate between 11 meters and 32 meters. “Recent studies from 466 glaciers of the Indian Himalayas indicate that there has been a 21% reduction in the glacierised area — from 2,077 square kilometers (sq km) in 1962 to 1,628 sq km in 2004,” the report said.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
