Disappearing glaciers

The government's move to set up a national research centre on glaciology addresses an important concern, because it has been known for some time that many of the country's major glaciers are shrinking. Fresh alarm has been sparked off by recent reports that the Gangotri glacier, the source of the mighty Ganga in Uttarkashi district of the Garhwal Himalayas, has receded substantially. This largest of all the Himalayan glaciers is believed to have been dwindling for years, but the rate of shrinkage has now spurted. The estimates are that the annual rate of reduction in the glacier's mass increased by around two-and-half times between 1956 and 1962; five-fold between 1962 and 1971; and over ten times since then. As a result, not only has it shrunk in its total dimensions, its channel feeding the Ganga is also reckoned to have shifted some 20 metres from its original track in the past decade and a half, with a reduced inflow of water into the river. If this erosion continues unabated, the Ganga could even disappear one day.

Alarming as that prospect is, the Gangotri is not the only Himalayan glacier that is in peril. Also receding, for instance, are the Pindari and Milan glaciers. The Ratankona glacier is in fact on the verge of disappearance, with its Dhauli Ganga valley wing already dried up. Notably, the fate of glaciers all across the Alps is no different. The polar ice cap, too, is melting. All this is ominous. Reduced flows in rivers severely curtail their hydel power potential as also their capacity to irrigate farm land. Navigation, tourism, wildlife and other aspects of a country's heritage and economic activity may also be adversely hit. The biggest worry is the potential impact on the ecology and climate change, which is believed to be both the cause as well as the result of the ice melting.

Unfortunately, human interference with the earth's green cover is among the main causes of the melting of glaciers. Little has been done to protect the hill ecology and to reverse global warming, despite the Kyoto protocol on climate change being in force. A depletion of the earth's protective ozone layer can play much greater havoc than the diminishing of the polar snow. For, the innumerable injurious radiations emitted by the sun are prevented from hitting the earth only by the ozone layer. If even a part of that radiation pierces through, life on this planet will be in jeopardy. The "Greenhouse gas bulletin", issued recently by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), indicates that concentrations of three greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) have touched their highest recorded levels. This should make all of humanity sit up. The setting up of a glaciology centre is welcome, but that is barely touching the tip of the iceberg.