Glacier Impact on Ganga

Retreat of Gangotri glacier will not impact the flow of river Ganga drastically 

Retreat of Gangotri glacier will not have drastic influence on the flow of Ganga as the river is not totally dependent on glaciers for its water even in the head-water region, said the government on Tuesday.

"The percentage of snow and glacier-fed contribution progressively reduces as one moves downstream. Rainwater and sub-surface flows contribute more than 70% of the flow of river Ganga at Haridwar", said the environment minister Anil Madhav Dave in Lok Sabha.

The minister, while responding to a Parliament Question, quoted the National Institute of Hydrology and referred to the mapping done by the country's space agency - Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The ISRO had carried out mapping of Himalayan glaciers using lndian satellite data during 2004 to 2007. The study shows that there are 34,919 glaciers spread over 75,779 sq. km. in Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins covering Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya including Karakoram region.

The minister had last week informed the Lok Sabha that majority of the glaciers in the country, including the largest one Gangotri, are melting at varying rates ranging from five to 20 metre per year.

Sharing information on Gangotri and the second largest glacier Satopanth, Dave had, however, said, "Both the glaciers are retreating (melting) but not at an alarming rate". 

Source: The Times of India

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4 Comments

1. Action rather than words is now essential. Please email for details of massive solar assisted shading frames to prevent glacial lake and certain upland glacier disintegration, and also the whitening of rocks bordering receding glaciers so that they are not heated by 18C and no longer cause glacier recession. rosjonesenvedu@hotmail.com

2. Mof WR&NG should commence and complete a STUDY on PLAN for WATER in the Catchment areas of GANGES RIVER SYSTEM ..It should include storage capacity for Natural and manmade reservoirs for rain waters and also green cover on mountains and all technological innovations should find space to augment ground waters, sub-surface water flows, use of tertiary waters for irrigation in preference over u/g water and ensure minimum flows in the River System..

3. We need to moderate peak flows and ensure better than minimum flow rates during dry heat months and surface run offs can be stored in natural reservoirs and manmade reservoirs and water utilised from these resources shall partially recharge ground water/ subsurface flows. Glaciers also ensure minimum flow rates during lean periods and we need to take steps before we are surprised.

4. I do agree  that retreat of Glaciers will not have an adverse effect on the flow of Ganga ,as Ganga is mostly fed by subsurface and rain water. But during the last one or two decades rainfall has drastically reduced along with diminishing of subsurface resources ,led to the reducing the flow of Ganga.In this it is very important to reduce the utilisation of subsurface resources .In order to increase the crop production we have drilled millions of shallow and deep tube wells in vast Ganga plain and making  huge area  devoid of forest .Aforestation program must be launched in order to increase green cover .

   1 Comment reply

   1. Massive Afforestation efforts are required to restore the green cover, However, initially this would also require a lot of water for the saplings to survive ??..!!!