No significant decrease in glaciers in Sikkim: Expert

There has been no significant decrease in glaciers in Sikkim due to global warming and climate change, a leading expert and member of Sikkim Glacier Commission Milap Chand Sharma has said.

There will be no decrease in the accumulation of snow / ice reserves in the glaciers of Sikkim in the near future due to precipitation in Sikkim throughout the year, he said.

Sikkim gets precipitation round the year from the south west monsoons, winter rains and Mediterranean westerlies due to its advantageous location in the eastern Himalayas. At higher altitudes, the precipitation is in the form of snow.

The triple precipitation in Sikkim will always cater to better input for the glaciers compared to the Western Himalayas, Sharma, who carried out an extensive study of the state of glaciers said.

Even the Zemu glacier, the largest in Sikkim, has retreated by only five to seven meters since 1977 despite its surface thining, he said.

The condition of glaciers depended on factors beyond climate change and global warming like morphology of valley, its shape, size and slope, he said.

While there have been a number of glaciers which have retreated during the past several years, there have been other glaciers which have advanced during the same period.