The hype over the Himalayan glaciers beating a retreat that has sounded alarm bells countrywide is over, if we trust scientists. The receding glaciers in Ladakh, Lahaul valley, Garhwal and as far as Sikkim have stabilised in the past few years, say glaciologists, who are monitoring and mapping the receding glaciers.

The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IGPCC) has sounded in its report 2007 that if the “climate change is not taken care of, its impact on the Himalayan glaciers will be catastrophic”. But 10 glaciologists from the Centre for the Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, have come out with a surprise: the rate of the receding glaciers has stabilised and neither rivers, nor glaciers which feed them will disappear for quite some time, they claim.

The glaciologists areconfident that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Environment Minister Jai Ram Ramesh would put up a brave face at the Pittsburg Summit of G-20 countries on climate change.

Dr Milap Chand Sharma, a glacial geomorphologist at JNU, who is heading the team of 10 researchers monitoring the Himalayan glaciers, said, “The rate of receding glaciers in Ladakh, Lahaul, Garhwal and Sikkim has stabilised in the past three years. However, we are trying to study this ‘new phenomenon’ in the Himalayan region.”

Dr Sharma said they had completed the glacial history of glaciers in Ladakh, Miyar-Chandrabhagha in Lahaul-Spiti, Parbati valley in Kullu, 30-km-long Gangotri glacier and Milan in Garhwal.

“We have not touched glaciers in Kinnaur, the sources of the Sutlej and Arunachal Pradesh”, he informed.

Dr Milap said they observed that Gangotri glacier had retreated by 20 m. “But the rate of retreat has been reduced to half metre in the past two years. We use ISRO satellite images and ground monitoring of glaciers to arrive at the conclusion,” he added.

He said the Rohtang Pass de-glaciated about 9,000 years ago. But real worry wass 5,000 vehicles that crossed Rohtang Pass in peak summer season. “The government must monitor this, lest it turns disastrous for local ecology,” he warned.

Prof Milap further said Beas and Parbati glaciers have receded but they have witnessed the same trend - the rate of retreat has stabilised. The Beas and Parbati glaciers, that feed the Beas and Parbati rivers, have been mapped, tracing out their glacial history to 13,000 years and 40,000 years, glaciologists said.

Glaciologists said glaciers in Ladakh had 3.6 lakh-year-old history. “Neither glaciers nor the rivers they feed will disappear as they are believed to be the coming time,” they asserted, citing their data in support.