CHANDIGARH: The temperature over the higher Himalayan region has increased more than in the low-lying areas, thus small glacier lakes are being formed in front of the glacier snouts as well as in the glacier bodies in the Himachal-Himalaya and Trans Himalayan region of the Tibet catchment, says a study.
As per the recent study carried out by the State Centre on Climate Change of the Himachal Pradesh Council for Science Technology and Environment (HIMCOSTE) in the Himachal Himalayas, based on the satellite data, the number of glacier lakes (large and small) were 995 in 2022 in comparison to 880 that were mapped in 2021 in the Satluj catchment area.
Talking with this newspaper, Lalit Jain Director (Environment) and Member Secretary of State Centre on Climate Change of the Himachal Pradesh Council for Science Technology and Environment (HIMCOSTE), said that based on the above analysis carried out for 2022 it is said that there is a considerable increase in the number of moraine dammed lakes (GLOFs) in each basin which reflects that formation of such lakes in the Higher Himalayan region.
SS Randhawa Principal Scientific Officer of HIMCOSTE, said: “The higher number of smaller lakes with area less than 5 hectare indicates that the effect of the climatic variations is more pronounced on the glaciers of the Himalayan region, particularly the Trans Himalayan Region of the Tibet catchment where in the formation of small lakes in front of the glacier snouts due to the damming of the morainic material is comparatively very high as observed from all three different sensors.”