It is a double-edged equation. Disaster-free weather conditions boosts tourism in ladakh. But with very few parametres being monitored, ladakh’s preparedness for handling any natural disaster is at stake. Sure-fire recipe for tourism-dependent economy going downhill.
When several places, including large portions of leh town, witnessed flash floods due to cloud burst in 2010 in ladakh, leh and neighbourhood were caught unawares.
More than 200 people died and 800 were reported missing due to the catastrophe that struct the cold desert in the monsoon months. Acres of agriculture land – already a scarce commodity – was covered by rubble brought down by flash floods.
A constant refrain then was: Could all this damage have been avoidedIJ Answer – yes, if ladakh was better prepared with adequate data related to environmental and weather, especially hydrological parametres.
Till 2014, when Kashmir valley witnessed colossal floods, Jammu & Kashmir state did not have a flood forecasting system. Even the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had not issued any “specific and actionable warning” for the 2010 calamitous climatic event.
Parliamentary Committee recommendations When, in 2015, a Parliamentary Committee visited leh for ‘Unprecedented floods in Srinagar and warning and forecasting of floods and environmental issues in leh, Jammu and Pathankot’, a representation by civil society/local NGOs rightly pointed out how “there was selective and myopic approach to deal with ecological imbalance in leh town”; how instead of targeting the tourists, a comprehensive well thought out action plan should be devised to mitigate environmental pollution caused by tourists” and that “climate change was having an adverse impact on water scarcity, livestock and agriculture.”
Post 2010 ladakh floods and 2014 Kashmir floods, the IMD had planned for ladakh – among other systems – nine advanced weather stations (AWS) apart from existing two; three advanced rain gauges (ARG); six advanced snow gauges (ASG) and one doppler weather radar.
Among other things, the Parliamentary Committee had recommended for ladakh that three stations under National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAPM) at leh, Nubraand Zanskar should be made operational at the earliest. This was important in view of the increasing number of tourist vehicles plying across ladakh’s hill roads.
The Committee had also recommended monitoring water pollution at six news stations – leh nalla, Indus river, Pangong lake, Tsomoriri lake, NiddarNalla and HunderTokpo – should be taken up on priority basis.
Unfortunately, circa 2017, nothing has changed. Going by ladakhi people’s account and whatever little data is available, it has been observed that over the years, there has been an increase in summer precipitation and faster melting of glaciers.
This increases the possibility of formation of glacial lakes, which in turn, may result in Glacial lake Outburst Floods (GlOFs).
Who monitors what in ladakhIJ
India Meteorological Department (IMDhttp://www.imd.gov.in/), Indian Air Force, Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASEhttp://www.drdo.gov.in/drdo/labs1/SASE/English/indexnew.jspIJpg=homepage.jsp), National Hydro-electric Power Corparation (NHPChttp://nhpcindia.com/newwebsite/), Central Water Commission (CWChttp://www.cwc.nic.in/), Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHARhttp://www.drdo.gov.in/drdo/labs1/DIHAR/English/indexnew.jspIJpg=homepage.jsp), the Sher-e-Kashmir Agriculture University’s unit at Stakna and the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) are the agencies monitoring different parametres.
IMD has one AWS at Stakna, about 30 kms east of leh, at the Krishi VigyanKendra at the Sher-e-Kashmir Agriculture University campus. Professor T H Masoodi, Assistant Director (Research and Extension), tells his unit is into agro-met monitoring for parametres such as precipitation, temperature, wind, humidity, soil temperature and sun shine duration.
Apart from this, the IMD exchanges daily meteorological data from IAF at leh, Thoise (Nubra) and Kargil to get basic parametres such as temperature, snowfall/rainfall etc. DIHAR does only temperature, precipitation and humidity monitoring.
SASE, which is a body under the DRDO, had embarked upon a project “to study the changing weather phenomenon in ladakh and subsequently develop new models for weather forecast” following the devastating 2010 cloudburst-induced floods. SASE has five AWS in leh district.
NHPC does Indus level monitoring (mainly for hydro-power projects) at Partapur and leh.
Given that nine villages and leh town get water directly from Indus, the flood level monitoring is highly inadequate for Indus.
Sonum lotus, Director IMD, J&K draws attention to how due to hostile weather condition and complex terrain, weather information is a very critical public service.
“So, IMD is going to install one Doppler Radar in leh this year apart from more weather monitoring equipment soon at all important places such as Nubra, Tsomorori, Nyoma, Kargil, Drass and Zanskar,” lotus promises.
(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)