Over 1,200 glaciers in J&K, Ladakh melting at ‘significant’ rate: Study

AS PER EXPERTS, MELTING OF THE GLACIERS IN J&K AND LADAKH IS GOING TO IMPACT THE WATER, FOOD AND ALSO LIVELIHOODS

SRINAGAR: Glaciers in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are melting at a “significant” rate, according to a first-of-its-kind study which used satellite data to find that over 1,200 glaciers in the Himalayan region saw an annual reduction in mass of 35 centimetres (cm) on average between 2000 and 2012.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, was carried over the Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh region, including areas across the Line of Control (LOC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC), and in all 12,243 glaciers were studied for thickness and mass changes.

“In general, it was observed that the glaciers in the Pir Panjal range are melting at the higher rate -- more than one metre per year -- while as the glaciers in the Karakoram range are melting relatively at slower rate, around 10 cms per year,” noted Professor Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, corresponding author of the study.

“Some glaciers are even advancing or stable in the Karakoram range. In other mountain ranges like the Greater Himalayan range, Zanaskar range, Shamabari range, Leh ranges, the glaciers are undoubtedly melting but the rate of melting is variable,” Romshoo, Dean of Research at the University of Kashmir in Srinagar, told PTI.

The research team, including Tariq Abdullah and Irfan Rashid, both from Geoinformatics

Department, University of Kashmir, used two satellite observations made in 2000 by NASA and in 2012 by German space agency DLR. They employed this data to determine the glacier thickness changes over the entire Upper Indus Basin, comprising of over 12,000 glaciers. “There is no such data (satellite observations) available in the world after 2012.

This is a first of its kind study in the region and provides a very good idea about what is happening to the glaciers in the region,” Romshoo explained.

Till date, he said, only six to seven glaciers have been studied in the region for thickness and glacial mass changes using field observations.

The researchers noted that while glacier melting is a continuous process and the shrinkage in area of the glaciers is being estimated routinely, thickness and mass changes are not possible always because of the lack of satellite data.

The team noted that during one decade of observation in this study, the region has lost about 70.32 gigatonne of glacier mass, which is “quite significant.”