Melting glacier is disaster for kashmir
The expedition, conducted by Professor Syed Iqbal Hasnain from the
Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), observed that the glacier’s
accumulation area (where snowfall freezes into new ice) has mostly
converted into ablation (depletion by melting and evaporation). The
decline was blamed on reduced snowfall, increasing regional
temperatures and the possible effects of the Asian Brown Cloud – the
huge cloud of pollution that regularly covers South Asia.
Due to its remote location and Kashmir’s political instability, this is the first time that Kolahoi has been formally studied. TERI plans to include it in an index of benchmark glaciers to determine the rate of glacial decline right across the southern Himalaya.
Kolahoi’s fate has serious implications for the valley and its people, according to Dr Ghulam Jeelani from the University of Kashmir, who accompanied the expedition. ‘The first effect of global warming is on water,’ he said. ‘And Kolahoi is the only permanent source of water for Kashmir. If it disappears, Kashmir could go from being a water-rich area to an area of water stress.’
November 2008
Due to its remote location and Kashmir’s political instability, this is the first time that Kolahoi has been formally studied. TERI plans to include it in an index of benchmark glaciers to determine the rate of glacial decline right across the southern Himalaya.
Kolahoi’s fate has serious implications for the valley and its people, according to Dr Ghulam Jeelani from the University of Kashmir, who accompanied the expedition. ‘The first effect of global warming is on water,’ he said. ‘And Kolahoi is the only permanent source of water for Kashmir. If it disappears, Kashmir could go from being a water-rich area to an area of water stress.’
November 2008
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