The retreat of the Gangotri glacier will not have a drastic influence on the flow of the national river Ganga as the river is not totally dependent on glaciers for its water even in the head-waters region. The percentage of snow and glacier-fed contribution progressively reduces as one moves downstream with the rainwater and sub-surface flows contributing more than 70 per cent of the flow of Ganga river at Haridwar.
This was stated by the Union Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Anil Madhav Dave, in a written reply in lok Sabha recently. However, members of the scientific fraternity and environmentalists in the region stress that such theoretical assumptions should not be cited for cementing ‘developmental’ activities detrimental to the environment especially in the Bhagirathi valley in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand where the Ganga originates.
According to Dave, in a collaborative project with MoEFCC, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had carried out mapping of Himalayan glaciers using Indian satellite data during 2004 to 2007.
The study ascertained 34,919 glaciers spread over a 75,779 square kilometers area in the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins covering Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya including Karakoram region. The ISRO further monitored the advance and retreat of 2018 glaciers across the Himalayan region using satellite data of 2000-01 to 2010-11. According to this study, 87 per cent of these glaciers showed no change during the stated period while 12 per cent glaciers retreated and one per cent had advanced.
The Minister’s reply further stated that Himalayan glaciers are being monitored as part of a new project funded by the Department of Space on the integrated studies of the Himalayan cryosphere using space based inputs and impact assessment due to climate change.
Apart from this, the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) under National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) also includes conservation measures for sustaining and safeguarding the Himalayan glaciers and mountain ecosystems by setting up a monitoring network, promoting community based management, human resource development and strengthening regional cooperation.
Major initiatives taken under NMSHE include creation of four thematic task forces on Himalayan agriculture, traditional knowledge systems, forest resources and plant diversity, and fauna and wildlife habitats. Additionally, state climate change centres have been set up in seven of the Himalayan states- Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim and Meghalaya.
However, environmentalists and a considerable proportion of people living in the mountain villages of Uttarakhand express doubts regarding whether environmental conservation provisions are effectively
implemented.
Activists state that the Central Government had in its December 18, 2012 notification declared 4179 square kilometre area from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi town an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) to protect the Ganga in the area of its origin. However, the Bhagirathi ESZ had not been successfully implemented in Uttarkashi district due to the failure of the State Government to involve residents of the area and provide them correct information about the implications of the notification.
Effective implementation of this ESZ notification could set an example in efforts to ensure the free flow and purity of the Ganga but the political executive appears to have kept stakeholders in the dark about its provisions to generate opposition against the notification, opine the activists.