India government report challenges Himalayan glacial melt

The Himalayan glaciers are receding faster than in any other part of the world and could disappear altogether by 2035 if not sooner/ Photo credit: Frederic Soltan/ Corbis

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN agency which estimates the risk from climate change, had propounded that Himalayan glaciers were receding faster than other glaciers in the world. They claimed that the glaciers could "disappear altogether by 2035 if not sooner."

However, a recent report titled Himalayan Glaciers, by V.K. Raina, former Director General Geological Survey of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, claims that it was premature to opine the glacial retreat in Himalayas was "historically alarming."

Government claims

Releasing the report in New Delhi, Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, said that the report would challenge the “conventional wisdom” about glacial retreat in the Himalayas. The report, which is based on analyses of last 150 years' data gathered by Geological Survey of India from 25 glaciers, claims to be the first comprehensive study on the region.

Government argues that glacier melt is affected by a variety of physical features, amidst a complex interplay with climatic factors, and therefore, the retreat of any glacier cannot be claimed to have resulted from climate change until centuries of observations are available. The Minister said that while most Himalayan glaciers were retreating, some, like the Siachen glacier, were advancing as well.

Citing the report he added, “Some glaciers are retreating at a declining rate, like the Gangotri, and the overall health of the Himalayan glaciers was poor as the debris cover had reached alarming proportions.” However, the snout movements appear to be peculiar to each glacier, and “there is no conclusive scientific evidence to link global warming with what is happening in the Himalayan glaciers."

Scientists dismiss the report

Reacting to this report, IPCC chairman Dr. R. K Pachauri accused Indian government of ‘arrogance.’ He said that the report was neither "peer reviewed," nor had any "scientific citations."

The report denied any possibility of comparison between glaciers in Alaska and Greenland, which were located at a much lower altitude and claimed that Himalayan glaciers are “a completely different system.” Against the warming issued by scientists that river beds of Gangetic basin could dry after the glaciers disappear and affect lives of millions in northern India; the report claims that the main source of the River Ganges, Gangotri glacier, actually receded fastest in 1977, and is "practically at a stand still" today.

Pachauri said that such statements were suggestive of "climate change deniers and school boy science." "I cannot see what the minister's motives are. We do need more extensive measurement of the Himalayan range but it is clear from satellite pictures what is happening," he added.

Environmentalists Sunita Narain, who is also a member of the Indian prime minister's climate change council and director of the Centre for Science and Environment, said "the report would create a lot of confusion" and expressed her lack of conviction in the report’s findings.

Source: The Guardian, November 9, 2009
            The Hindu, November 10, 2009