Pak says glaciers shrinking due to presence of the Indian army

The Indian military presence and the Indian government’s decision to allow tourists to visit the Siachen glacier are harming the Siachen eco-system. Glacial lakes have started forming in the region and the increased human activity might pose a risk to Pakistan’s food security in the long run, the director-general of the Pakistan Meteorological department, Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, has said.

Chaudhry said Pakistan’s agriculture was dependent on the Himalayan glaciers and the Indian army’s presence was causing damage to them.

According to Arshad Abbasi, an environmentalist and a visiting research fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, high-resolution imagery had indicated to the presence of a large lake in the middle of the Siachen glacier. “This is the most significant impact of the Indian army’s presence on the glacier. This also establishes that anti-environment activities of the Indian army,” he said.

“When the lake bursts, a massive part of the glacier would melt rapidly,” Abbasi said.
“The extraordinary melting of Siachen and other glaciers is responsible for destructive snow avalanches on both sides of the Saltoro Ridge,” he added.

He said that glaciers on the Pakistani side were not only stable but moderately growing. “This has been established through studies conducted by various independent international researchers. The Baltoro glacier, on the other side of the same Saltoro ridge, has remained stable.”

By attributing the melting of the glaciers to global warming, New Delhi is giving “a deceptive and false impression to the international community”. He termed the Indian army’s presence as environmental crime.

“War-specific developments are death sentences for the Himalayan glaciers,”  he said, adding dumping chemicals, metals, organic and human waste, daily leakages of about 2,000 gallons of kerosene from the 250-kilometre-long plastic pipeline was accelerating the melting process.