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The Himalayan State of Uttarakhand is experiencing changes like steady recession of glaciers, shifting vegetation line, increasing temperature and reduction in annual rainfall, to name a few, due to climate change.
The Gangotri and other glaciers have continued to retreat at different rates with climate change believed to be a major reason. These changes have been stated in the first interim report on climate change in Uttarakhand issued by the Uttarakhand Centre on Climate Change (UCCC), Uttarakhand Science Education and Research Centre, Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST) and Centre of Excellence for Natural Resources Data Management System.
According to the UCCC principal investigator and Kumaon University Vice-Chancellor VPS Arora, the database for climate change studies has been developed by different working groups of the centre through available data and studies.
Though some skeptics still maintain that global climatic changes are part of cyclic phenomena, climate change and anthropogenically accelerated change has left a definite signature on at least 25 aspects from glaciers, water quality and crop yield to rainfall rhythm and the pest spectrum.
In the interim report on climate change in Uttarakhand, the part which details the signature of climate change has been compiled by the KU VC VPS Arora, UCOST DG Rajendra Dobhal; JS Rawat, Navneet Gahlot and Arbind Anand from UCCC.
On October 15 and 21, 1990 snow covered about 4,884 sq km area in Uttarakhand but on the same dates in 1999, the snow cover area had decreased by about 17 per cent to 4,145 sq km. This decrease is transforming glacier-fed rivers like one of the major rivers Saryu, which has transformed completely into a non-glacier river.
Studies in Uttarakhand show that the Himalayan glaciers in this State are retreating at different rates in different time periods depending on their geographic location. The Gangotri glacier system comprising 32 tributary glaciers has been receding too. While the master glacier is retreating at a rate of 19m/year (Naithani et al 2001), two of its tributary glaciers; Raktvarna and Thelu are retreating at double this rate whereas the disappearance of various small glaciers from the region has not been documented.
Similar trends have been observed in other glaciers including Pindari, Milam and Dokriani. Locals have also been observing the diminishing regulatory effect of glaciers as the discharge of snow-fed rivers is decreasing even though glaciers are melting due to global warming. The report states that this is happening due to significant decrease in snow cover area in catchment areas of such rivers, disappearance of numerous small glaciers, decreasing length of time that snow remains on the mountains and reduction in numerous tributary streams fed by groundwater, which has been drastically reduced due to change in rainfall behaviour.
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