Himalayas: The shifting glaciers can lead to the shifting of tree lines, the Centre said in parliament.
New Delhi: The Central government has informed the parliament that a majority of glaciers in the Himalayan region have been melting or receding. The government's scary revelation came during a parliamentary standing committee meeting on the monitoring of glaciers/lakes and flash floods. It also informed the panel that the phenomenon will lead to natural disasters and severely impact the flow in Himalayan river. The report was tabled on Wednesday.
The report said that the majority of Himalayan glaciers are melting or retreating at varying rates in different regions. It warned that the glaciers will affect the river system and will lead to disasters like floods triggered by the outburst of glacier lakes, avalanche and landslide.
The shifting glaciers can lead to the shifting of tree lines. It may also impact the livelihoods of mountain people and downstream populations.
It will also impact the ecosystem of the Himalayas.
The panel pointed out that there was no agreement with neighbouring countries for glacier-linked data. It batted for formulating strategy to coax regional cooperation.
"Since the threat posed by the melting/retreating Himalayan glaciers transcends the national boundaries of the Himalayan nations, the Committee is of the considered view that in order to formulate an effective and comprehensive response to the threat posed by melting of glaciers and for mitigating potential hazard situations, regional cooperation for seamless sharing of hydrological information / data on glacier movement / behaviour is very much warranted," it said.
The report recommended that the concerned ministries must enter into a bilateral and multilateral agreement with India's neighbours in the Himalayan region for the sharing of information and data. This will aid the region's understanding of threats posed by the melting glaciers.
The panel pointed out that the Himalayas have become less cold due to global warming and climate change. It said the number of cold days and cold nights have declined.
Trend analysis of cold days and cold nights of 16 stations across J&K and Himachal Pradesh has revealed that for most of the stations, the percentage number of warm days is increasing and number of cold days is decreasing. Also, a similar pattern of increase /decrease in percentage number of warm /cold nights is seen. The reduction of cold days is noted to be approximately two to six per cent within a 30-year period, it added.
With inputs from PTI
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 "The panel pointed out that there was no agreement with neighbouring countries for glacier-linked data. (File)")
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