For billions of people, mountain meltwater is essential for drinking water and sanitation, food and energy security, and the integrity of the environment. But today, as the world warms, glaciers are melting faster than ever, making the water cycle more unpredictable and extreme. And because of glacial retreat, floods, droughts, …
Q&A;: Maharaj K Pandit, director of the CISMHE Latha Jishnu / New Delhi November 20, 2009, 0:40 IST Maharaj K PanditFor almost a decade now, Maharaj K Pandit has been spending a lot of time in the eastern and western Himalayas studying the changes to the fragile ecology brought about …
N. GOPAL RAJ An official discussion paper on the status of Himalayan glaciers is coming under fire. The paper, issued recently by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, argued that the glaciers, which nourish several great rivers such as the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra, have not retreated abnormally. It also …
RASHME SEHGAL The controversy over the retreating Himalayan glaciers has taken a new turn with Dr R.K. Ganjoo, a glaciologist from the Institute of Himalayan Glaciology, insisting these glaciers are not in retreat. Having studied glaciers for the last 30 years, he claimed that while the volume of some glaciers …
Rubbishing the claim by a government-backed study that melting of glaciers was not due to climate change, leading environmentalist R.K. Pachauri on Sunday dubbed it as "totally unsubstantiated scientific opinion" and flayed environment minister Jairam Ramesh for endorsing it. Dr Pachauri, the head of Nobel prize winner Intergovernmental Panel on …
From Leh, the 40-km drive to Khardungla, the highest motorable pass in the world at 18,380 feet, winds gently through mountains coated with thick snow. To the left of the pass the Ladakhis swear is the Khardung glacier which has retreated, though there is no study to confirm it. In …
Aarti Dhar 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 …
YOJNA GUSAI A discussion paper contradicting the findings of various studies, including the IPCC report, which link melting of glaciers to global warming, was released by environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday. The discussion paper, that puts together recent studies on glaciers by Indian scientists, states that there is no …
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had been saying it all along. Now he has the findings of a report to back his claims. A study by a former scientist at the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has sought to downplay the scare-mongering over an apparent alarming retreat of the Himalayan glaciers …
Report Runs Counter To Pachauri Panel Findings, Says Some Glaciers Actually Expanding New Delhi: The environment ministry on Monday published a discussion paper stating that there was no conclusive evidence to prove that the Himalayan glaciers are melting due to climate change. The report, released by Union environment minister Jairam …
Amidst growing concerns over global warming and receding glaciers, there is some good news from Jammu and Kashmir: not all Himalayan glaciers are melting and many in the state and in its neighbourhood are stable for years now, finds out a study conducted by Jammu University. But, such stable glaciers …
This new WWF study explores how the glaciers in the Indian Himalayas are going through change and says that smaller glaciers in the Himalayas are proving much more vulnerable to climate change impacts than previously thought, with significant implications for the livelihood and freshwater supplies of millions. Smaller glaciers in …
This paper on the state of Himalayan Glaciers by V K Raina, ex Deputy Director of GSI presents a historical review of the research to date spanning more than fifty years, and claims that it is premature to accept that Himalayan glaciers are retreating abnormally because of global warming. Monitoring …
Ottawa: The multiyear ice covering the Arctic Ocean has effectively vanished, a startling development that will make it easier to open up polar shipping routes, an Arctic expert has claimed. Vast sheets of impenetrable multiyear ice, which can reach up to 80m thick, have for centuries blocked the path of …
This report presented by Dept. of Science & Technology, Government of Sikkim, Gangtok at " Glaciers, climate change and livelihood summit" on 29-30 October 2009 at Shimla. This document presents the programmes taken up for glacier studies and climate change adaptation programmes in Sikkim and seeks the GOI's support on …
