An aerial view of ladakh gives an ample idea of how ladakh comprises number of small and big glacier and snow/ice fields atop every mountain, hill and even high-altitude plains.All these form catchments for glaciers – 227 of them in ladakh – that melt to form streams large and small – called Tokpo in ladakh. Each village or settlement has its own Tokpo. All stream, all tokpos flow towards the Indus after irrigating the agriculture fields and catering to village/settlement’s requirement. Which basically means all glacier melt water is source of sustenance for ladakhi people. Recently, groundwater withdrawal has increased in leh and other areas of ladakh but without check.
Receding glaciers is already a cause of worry. In many cases, the melting glaciers lead to what is called as Glacier lake Outburst Flood, which can be devastating for both, humans/livestock and agriculture fields. So, the same glaciers that are life line for ladakh’s agriculture and life in general are potentially liable to cause huge losses.
What is worrying is that a number of such glaciers remain unmonitored for snowfall or its meltwater. In their paper about Phuche Glacier lake Outburst Flood in the Compendium of Mass Movement (http://nidm.gov.in/idmc2/PDF/Abstracts/landslide.pdf), the authors endorsed an urgent need for preparation of inventory of the glacial lakes of ladakh and to identify the potentially dangerous glacial lakes. “Developing a monitoring and early warning system to forewarn the dangers of GlOF in advance to the people living downstream.
A beginning has been done by way of a comprehensive NIH project since 2010 for monitoring Phuche glacier and its headwaters glacier in Khardong la area – both supplying water for leh town. The NIH team led by Dr Renoj J Thayyen, starts its work from May every year to find out winter mass balance (snow accumulated in the winter months for a given glacier) and various factors associated with it.
“Our aim is to collect as much data as possible for various studies. We do face lot of problems while gathering climatic data. But we also study non-climatic conditions that affect the health of the glaciers and pollutes water resources. For instance, catchment area for both Phuche and Khardong glaciers witnesses heavy traffic almost round the year. This leads to pollution of water at source,” Rhenoj said.
The NIH team has plans for a long-term monitoring of the two glaciers for carrying out a holistic study to know how glacial discharge influences downstream flow.
Sonam Wangchuk, who has been constructing and popularising the concept of Ice Stupa (artificial stupa shaped glacier at lower altitudes) says, “Every village of ladakh depends on the winter snow fall on the mountain tops in its vicinity. Each glacier, big or small, needs monitoring.”
“The next generation has a task cut out for it. We are planning to have this kind of training in our proposed Himalayan Institute of Alternatives,” the award winning innovator
Indus Water Treaty (IWT)
It is imperative for ladakh to increase monitoring of and research into various parametres – atmospheric, cryosphere-related, hydrological flows, weather data, glaciers etc. as any kind of weather disruption can have an adverse economic impact. Floods, due to excessive precipitation or GlOFs, can hamper availability of agriculture lands, bring down production and affect food security apart from destruction of property. This in turn will affect tourism, the mainstay of ladakh’s economy.
Another important aspect is the trans-boundary Indus Water Treaty (IWT) wherein Indus river waters are given to Pakistan and India cannot dam it. In view of the changing circumstances, both impact of climate change and strategic possibilities such as dams in the upstream of ladakh on Indus by China (in Tibet), it becomes more important to fill the data gap.
Prof Shakil Romshoo, head of the Department of Earth Sciences, Kashmir University, Srinagar, says, “Overall, there is not enough hydrological, meteorological, and glaciological observation data available for Indus, and more so for the tributaries in the ladakh region.”
“Hydrological observations like flow measurements are very few. Very few glaciers are being monitored in the region using ground based observations. The glaciers in the region on Karakorum are more-or-less stable. (But) There is a need to develop a strategy for long term studies on cryosphere, glacial hydrology and climate change studies in the region to understand the (current) status and future trends of the important land surface and atmospheric processes in the region,” Romshoo recommends.
Nivedita Khandekar is an independent journalist based in Delhi. She writes on environmental and developmental issues. She can be reached at nivedita_him@rediffmail.com or follow her on twitter at @nivedita_Him