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, …
A GMACCC report warns that a recent drought in India which has affected over 330 million people – causing displacement and threatening farms –is just the first hint of how climate change could destabilise the South Asian region, unless steps are taken to address the threat posed by a warming, …
A method is developed for determination of levoglucosan at trace concentration levels in complex matrices of snow and ice samples. This method uses an injection mixture comprising acetonitrile and melt sample at a ratio of 50/50 (v/v). Samples are analyzed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography system combined with triple tandem quadrupole …
Using Landsat data at decadal interval (1980-2013), the glacier fluctuations (glacier area, equilibrium line altitude and specific mass balance) of nine benchmark glaciers in Kashmir Himalaya was estimated. The observed changes were related with topographic and climatic variables in order to understand their influence. From the data analysis, it was …
This synthesis report brings together the various components from the pilot study on climate vulnerability, hazards and risk, completed for Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh. The report introduces an integrated assessment framework, highlights key findings, discusses the main learnings and implications for climate change adaptation and disaster-risk reduction in Kullu district, …
The report examines the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) in detail and explores its linkages with the Himalayan State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs). The report also seeks to answer a key question – How much scope there is for the states in the Indian Himalayan …
Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Court on its own Motion Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh & Ors. dated 11/12/2015 regarding plying of vehicles to go Rohtang Pass for tourism purpose. In order to keep the eco-tourism going on and also to protect the State revenue …
Small glaciers and ice caps respond rapidly to climate variations, and records of their past extent provide information on the natural envelope of past climate variability. Millennial-scale trends in Holocene glacier size are well documented and correspond with changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. However, there is only sparse and …
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was employed to obtain morphology, size, composition, and mixing state of background aerosols with diameter less than 1 µm in the northern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) during 15 September to 15 October 2013. Individual aerosol particles mainly contained secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA – sulfate and nitrate) and …
Question raised in Lok Sabha on Impact of Climate Change in Himalayas, 01/12/2015. Under the Himalayan Glaciological Programme sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, studies related to mass balance, hydrometeorology, glacier dynamics, glacier length/area changes and climate studies of the Himalayan glaciers are being carried …
Lying 4,700m above sea level on the Tibetan plateau is Namtso Lake. It is held as holy by the region's Tibetan population and every year thousands of pilgrims walk around its shores. As one of the largest lakes on the plateau, Namtso is fed partly by run-off from the region's …
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signals penetrate through the dry snow and cloud providing crucial data over the Himalayan temperate glaciers and complement the optical images. In the present study, RISAT- 1 C band and AWiFS images of winter/ablation period over Samudra Tapu and Gepang Gath moraine dammed lakes (MDLs) in …
Glacial erosion is fundamental to our understanding of the role of Cenozoic-era climate change in the development of topography worldwide, yet the factors that control the rate of erosion by ice remain poorly understood. In many tectonically active mountain ranges, glaciers have been inferred to be highly erosive, and conditions …
These "before" and "after" images were acquired by the US space agency's Landsat observer Scientists are studying a big mass of ice that has broken off the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland. They say the 12.4km sq section is among the largest ever witnessed to come away from the ice stream's …
The first decade of the twenty-first century has not been a good one for the planet's climate. Of the 15 warmest years on record, 14 have occurred since 2000. Rising global temperatures have also made glaciers -- ice masses that currently occupy nearly 10 percent of the world’s total land …
It turns out that glaciers are melting faster than ever. Scientists have compiled worldwide data on glacier changes for more than 120 years and have found that in the first decade of the 21st century, glaciers have melted faster than ever before. "The observed glaciers current lose between half a …
Observations show that glaciers around the world are in retreat and losing mass. Internationally coordinated for over a century, glacier monitoring activities provide an unprecedented dataset of glacier observations from ground, air and space. Glacier studies generally select specific parts of these datasets to obtain optimal assessments of the mass-balance …
The main objective of this technical assistance paper is to provide recommendations to the Royal Government of Bhutan for modernizing its hydrometeorological services, including capacity strengthening for disaster related early warning systems (EWSs). The DHMS (Department of Hydromet Services) does not have a national hydromet services policy but is in …
Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Court on its own Motion Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh & Ors. dated 06/07/2015 regarding pollution at Rohtang Pass. The Tribunal has noted with serious concern that there is complete chaos at the Rohtang Pass and its adjacent glaciers, which, …
The aim of this research was to identify the effects of Pleistocene climate change on the distribution of fauna in Tasmania, and contrast this with biotic responses in other temperate regions in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere that experienced glacial activity during this epoch. This was achieved by examining the …
Restrictions on access to Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh will continue as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) today refused to stay the operation of its earlier direction limiting the entry of diesel and petrol tourist vehicles to 1,000 a day. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar refused …
