Dehradun: The effect of climate change is increasingly visible on the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. A new study has given a serious warning about the danger of rising temperatures in the western Himalayas and the possibility of accelerated snow melting in the future.
In the Western Himalayas, the heat is increasing the most during the winter season. This has been revealed in research on 120 years of data from 1901 to 2020 and eight climate models. Compared to the Central and Eastern Himalayas, temperatures in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are rising faster in all seasons and in all conditions.
A research study on Vulnerability of the Himalayan Region under Climate Change, published in the Journal of Earth System Science, has revealed that night temperatures are increasing faster than day temperatures in the Western Himalayas. Scientists say that if pollution is not reduced, by the end of this century the speed of snow melting in the spring season in the Western Himalayas will increase three times.
Himalayas were divided into three parts for study
A team of scientists from Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) Masera, Department of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and Ashoka University assessed the changes in temperature and snow in three parts of the Indian Himalaya. The research included 120 years of real temperature records from 1901 to 2020 and eight global climate models.
The study focused on two seasons: winter when snow accumulates and spring before the monsoon when snow melts. The Himalayas have been divided into three parts for study. Western Himalaya – Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, Central Himalaya – Uttarakhand and Eastern Himalaya – Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and the entire Northeast. There are more than 15 thousand glaciers in these three areas. It is from here that rivers like Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra originate.