No alarming glacier retreat, none in 2009, says MoEF study

While the threat of Himalayan glaciers receding remains, a new review has shown that there was no retreat in 2009 and no "alarming" decline otherwise.

A white paper on the status of Himalayan glaciers and global warming, currently being studied by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), suggests that in most cases glaciers have stopped retreating. While the Gangotri glacier stopped receding in the 2007-09 period, it says, glaciers like Pindari in Kumaon continue to record a high annual retreat of almost 10 metres annually.

MoEF Minister Jairam Ramesh believes that the data indicates that a better understanding is needed of what is happening and refuses to accept that global warming is causing the retreat. "The Himalayan glaciers are in trouble. The paper finds that some are retreating, but others seem to be advancing. However, there is no robust scientific evidence to suggest that climate change is causing the retreat," Ramesh said.

However, studying only the "snout" or the front of the glacier, as the new review did, comes with its own problems, with the study noting that even adjoining glaciers seem to behave differently. The report notes that while glaciers react to climate, immediate effects of climate may not reflect on the snout of a glacier.

Glaciologists are of the view that several factors — mass, length and breadth — and not just the snouts of Himalayan glaciers need to be studied seriously.

Reviewing the position of the "snouts" of glaciers, the white paper found that Himalayan glaciers are in retreat, but not "abnormally" so, and concluded that there seemed to be no impact of global warming. The paper was prepared by V K Raina, a former deputy director general of the Geological Survey of India.

In case of the Gangotri glacier, the review said, there was no retreat between September 2007 and June 2009. The same glacier had retreated an alarming 20 metres between the 1970s and 2000.

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