New Delhi: Most Indian glaciers, including Gangotri, are melting at a rate of 5 to 20 metres per year — at least one of them for over two decades — the union environment ministry revealed on Tuesday.
“The studies carried out by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun and others institutions have revealed that majority of the glaciers are retreating (melting) at varying rates from 5 to 20 metre per year,” said the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Anil Madhav Dave in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
“Gangotri is one of the largest glaciers (30 km long) of Uttarakhand followed by Satopanth glacier (14 km),” he said, adding that both are retreating but not at an alarming rate.
The minister said that studies carried out on melting of glaciers indicate that the rate of retreat is not uniform for all glaciers.
“For example, Dokriani glacier in Bhagirathi basin is retreating between 15 and 20 metre per year since 1995, whereas Chorabari glacier in the Alaknanda basin is retreating 9-11 metre per year (2003-2014),” he explained.
The parliament was also informed that a study on the length and area changes of 82 glaciers located in the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda river basins, using remote sensing, suggests that the area of glaciers decreased from 599.9 sq km in 1968 to 572.5 sq km in 2006 — a net loss of 4.6%.
A number of organisations and institutions such as the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Department of Space, WIHG Dehradun, Kashmir University, Jammu University, Sikkim University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) are engaged in monitoring and conducting research on glaciers.
The government has also set up a Centre for Glaciology at WIHG, funded by the department of science and technology, to carry out detailed investigations of glacier masses in the Himalayan region.
Dave clarified that “there is no proposal with the government to seek foreign assistance for research on climate change in the Himalayan region”.
