Melting glaciers have become a threat to major rivers

NEW DELHI: The melting of Himalayan glaciers has posed a major threat to rivers -- Ganga, Yamuna, Indus and Brahmaputra -- threatening to reduce them into seasonal rivers within a few decades. This has prompted the planning of an Indo-Chinese joint expedition to study the problem.

It would focus on the glaciers from which the Brahmaputra and the Sutlej originate. The study proposes to collect data sets over a period of five years. This would help develop a model for glacier recession forecasting in the present climate change scenario, said Major HPS Ahluwalia, president of Indian Mountaineering Foundation. The study was planned by Major together with Liang Limin, director of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study was seen as important since the Himalyas is the largest water reservoir in the world other than the Polar regions.

The region is facing adverse climatic changes and the pressure of human population. And adding to the problems was the threat of the Asian brown cloud - a haze of smoke and dust, owing to pollution caused by human activity. The thick veil of smoke and dust hangs over South Asia like a blanket, said Prof Syed I Hasnain, former Vice-Chancellor of Calicut University.

Hasnain said the entire world faces a major threat due to global warming as it is causing permanent ice shelves and glaciers to melt.

The expedition would study the phenomenon in the Pulan and Zhada regions in Tibet where Mt Kailash is situated. The first expedition would start in September 2007 and would take a month.