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Effect Of Global warming On River Ganga - ग्लोबल वार्मिंग से गंगा नदी खतरे मे?

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एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720:
Will global warming dry up the Ganga, which supports 500 million people? 


MANOHAR ARORA
 
The snout of the glacier at Gaumukh from where the Bhagirathi emerges.

The path to Gaumukh crackles with expectation. Each step over the boulders brings you closer to the glacier – the source of the mighty Ganga. Pilgrims who cannot walk make their way on horses. Hikers and tourists move about enamoured of the mysticism in the mountains. A sprinkling of sadhus whets their curiosity and spices up the trail.


http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20071207505004900.htm

In the valley below, the Bhagirathi gushes past pine and deodar trees. As you approach the glacier, the landscape becomes sparse. There are only rocks and boulders. But even here, tiny mandirs (temples) and dhabas have colonised a few corners. In India, not even the holy Mother Ganga can escape land grab.

Gaumukh, at 4,000 metres, is the source of the Bhagirathi, which joins the Alaknanda at Devprayag to form the Ganga. When you finally reach the glacier, you realise it is not a huge sheet of white ice – it is just a bunch of rocks covered in ice; a mountain face that is melting. The anticipation fizzles.

The Gangotri glacier is receding. Along the trail, ominous rocks are like tombstones marking its retreat. “Gangotri in 1891... Gangotri in 1961… Gangotri in 1991.” Its shrinking length is recorded on the rocks that once were part of the glacier.

What will remain of the Ganga? Will global warming dry up a river that supports 500 million people? The impact of the melting glaciers is still unclear. The Himalayan glaciers form the largest body of ice outside the polar caps. They are the source of seven major river systems – including the Yamuna, the Brahmaputra and the Indus.

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which collates research about climate change from scientific work across the world, has a dire warning.



 
A Sivalinga put up less than a kilometre from Gaumukh. Shrines and dhabas have colonised a few places on the way to the glacier.

“Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the earth keeps warming at the current rate. Its total area will likely shrink from the present 500,000 km{+2} [square kilometres] to 100,000 km{+2} by the year 2035,” says the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, released this year.

“The current trends of glacial melts suggest that the Ganga, Indus, Brahmaputra and other rivers that criss-cross the northern Indian plain could likely become seasonal rivers in the near future as a consequence of climate change.”

But scientists studying the Gangotri glacier feel this prediction is alarmist. “There is no doubt that the glaciers are retreating, but they are not going to disappear. Nor are the rivers,” says Milap Sharma, glacial geomorphologist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. “In recent times, glaciers have been retreating since the 19th century – the end of the Little Ice Age. Our findings show that in 1966-71, the retreat was the highest (30.4 m per year), which has reduced to 19.2 m in the last few years” (see table).

“The pace of glacier melting is slowing down, which suggests that the rate of temperature rise is also declining,” says A.K. Tangri, a glaciologist at the Remote Sensing Application Centre in Lucknow. No studies on temperature change in the Himalayas exist. In fact, proper temperature records over decades for the upper Himalayas are difficult to find. Scientists need data for more than 30-40 years to establish any clear trend. Only seven years ago, a few automated weather stations were set up.



 



In the rest of India (except the Himalayas), studies show that annual air temperature rose by 0.42°Celsius to 0.57°C per 100 years. The earth has warmed by 0.74°C, according to the IPCC report.

“Himalayan glaciers are not melting at an abnormal rate,” says C. Sangewar from the Geological Survey of India, which is monitoring Indian glaciers.

“The rate of recession in different climatic zones varies in different years. It can fluctuate due to several factors such as micro and macroclimate, mountain geography, size of the glacier, nature of nourishment, and so on.”

It is still unclear how the melting of the Gangotri glacier is affecting the Ganga. “Reports that the Ganga will disappear are exaggerated. Yes, the glaciers are melting due to climate change, but not at such a catastrophic rate,” says Manohar Arora, glaciologist at the National Institute of Hydrology, Rourkee. “After studying the glacier for eight years, we have found that the total water discharged into the river has not changed much. But, eight years is too short a period to establish any clear trend.”

Snow cover in the Bhagirathi basin has been diminishing since the 1980s, which means that less snow is feeding the river. “The difference between peak accumulation (after winter) and peak ablation (after melting in summer) snow cover is declining, so less melt water from the watershed area is being discharged into the Bhagirathi river,” says Tangri.

The Ganga is not totally dependent on glaciers for its water. “Most of the river’s catchment area up to West Bengal is rain-fed. Only 20,000 sq km (7 per cent) of the river basin up to Devprayag is fed by the glacier,” says Arora. “Snow and glacier melt contribute only 48 per cent to the annual flow at Gangotri and 29 per cent at Devprayag, where the Bhagirathi meets the Alaknanda to form the Ganga river. The rest is from rain water.”

“In the last few years, we have noticed that one major river channel, Raktwarn, is flowing on the surface of the glacier. This is unusual. It indicates that the melting may be quickening. Earlier, water was flowing from inside the glacier,” says Arora. “As warming continues, the entire agricultural pattern may change and our dam design parameters and flood control measures will have to be altered.”



 

“If viewed over a geological timescale, the glacier’s retreat is not unusual,” says Sharma, who has been studying the glacier’s movement. “Around 3,900 years back, it was at Gangotri, and has retreated just 8 km since then. The glacier has been retreating at different rates. In the intervening period, it also advanced a bit during the Little Ice Age in the 16th to 18th century. These are natural processes. The glacier will remain because it will be constantly fed by precipitation and because it is at such a high altitude.”

After Siachen (73 km long), Gangotri (28.5 km long) is the second largest of the 9,575 glaciers in the Indian Himalayas. It is a sacred spot because it was here that the Ganga (the stream of God) is believed to have touched the earth for the first time. According to mythology, goddess Ganga (the daughter of Heaven) came down to the earth in the form of a river to absolve the sins of King Bhagirath’s predecessors and help them attain moksha (salvation). Bhagirath had been in severe penance for several centuries. A stone plinth in Gangotri town is supposed to be the site where he meditated. That is why the Ganga is called Bhagirathi at its source. Siva received the Ganga in his matted locks to lighten the impact of its fall.

A Gorkha commander, Amar Singh Thapa, built the Gangotri temple in the early 18th century. In winter, the idol of goddess Ganga is taken to Mukhba, her winter abode downstream, since Gangotri is covered with snow. The entire town is deserted in the winter but is packed with pilgrims in the summer. Every year, more than 50,000 people trek to Gaumukh to bathe in the pure water at the glacier. The hike from Gangotri (a tiny tourist town at 3,000 m) to Gaumukh is 18 km.

Gangotri town itself is a tourist trap – unplanned with dingy hotels and shops springing up in tiny corners of the landscape. Though the Gangotri National Park is a protected area where cars are not allowed, tourist traffic has destroyed the forest. The trail is littered with biscuit wrappers and water bottles. In the Shravan month, in July, Gaumukh has the most number of visitors. Bhojvasa, the base camp where trekkers and pilgrims halt for the night, was named after the bhoj (birch) forests here. It is believed that the Mahabharata was written on the bark of bhoj trees. Now, Bhojvasa is bare. It is difficult to find a bhoj tree there. The local dhabas have cut them down for firewood.

If there is one thing on which all scientists and local environmentalists agree, it is that tourism here has to be stopped or strictly regulated. “Tourists should not be allowed beyond Gangotri. Right now, it is a free-for-all. People bathe in the water, cook, litter the place, leave their clothes, walk on top of the glacier. It is harming the environment,” says Arora.

“All the sewage is dumped straight into the river without treatment. This year, 12,000 chappals were left on the path to the glacier. Plastic bags are dumped without a thought,” says S.S. Tariyal of the Clean Ganga Campaign. It is believed that the Ganga’s waters remain pure for decades, but it is being polluted at the source itself. Gangotri is far from the pure, spiritual place it is supposed to be.

The Pala Maneri and Lohari Nag Pala dams are being built just 90 km from Gangotri. The blasting and tunnelling has damaged houses in this earthquake-prone area. In 1991, an earthquake in Uttarkashi killed 769 people, and there are still frequent tremors and landslides. Dams only increase the risk of earthquakes, and there are already two major dam projects on the Ganga – Maneri Bali (phase 1 and 2) and Tehri. The new dams will submerge acres of forest and agricultural and grazing lands. Already, the Tehri dam has caused widespread damage. And the government has not yet provided adequate resettlement to those ousted by the dam since the 1970s.


MILAP SHARMA
 
Pilgrims at Gaumukh during the peak season in July. But Gangotri is far from the pure, spiritual place it is supposed to be; the Ganga is polluted at the source itself.

Still, the Uttarakhand government is on a dam-building spree, with almost a hundred projects planned across the State. “Instead of developing water conservation projects, the government just keeps building dams, which disturb this fragile ecology. Most dams do not even work in the winter because there isn’t enough water, so there are power cuts,” says Harshvanti Bisht of the Clean Ganga Campaign.

Smaller sources of water such as springs and glacierets are drying up because snowfall has reduced not only in Gangotri but all over the Himalayas. Smaller glaciers are receding faster than the larger ones.

The glacier area in the Chenab, Parbati and Baspa basins in Himachal Pradesh shrunk by one-fifth during 1962 to 2006, according to a study of 466 glaciers by Anil Kulkarni and his colleagues at the Space Application Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation. They found that the number of glaciers has increased owing to fragmentation. Glacierets and ice fields melted more quickly, retreating by 38 per cent.

What is ice today will be bare stone tomorrow. The rocks on the trail to Gaumukh were once part of the glacier. As it pulls back further, no one knows how it will change the Ganga. For now, the river rolls on. •

(The article is based on research under a grant from The Ashoka Trust for Ecology and Environment.)

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720:
नदियों के घटते जलस्तर पर विशेषज्ञों ने जताई चिंताNov 27, 02:09 am

अल्मोड़ा। कृषकों में जागरूकता लाने की मंशा से कोसी नदी जलागम क्षेत्र के पर्यावरण संस्थान कटारमल ने तीन दिवसीय प्रशिक्षण कार्यक्रम की सोमवार को शुरूआत की गई। कार्यक्रम का उद्घाटन जिलाधिकारी निधिमणि त्रिपाठी ने किया।

इस अवसर पर विशेषज्ञों ने कोसी-गगास जैसी महत्वपूर्ण नदियों के घटते जलस्तर पर चिंता जाहिर की। उन्होंने नदियों के घटते जलस्तर पर काबू पाने तथा जलस्तर को बढ़ाने को आज की सबसे बड़ी आवश्यकता बताया। वक्ताओं का कहना था कि इस सबके लिए सबसे पहले जनप्रतिनिधियों व ग्रामीण जनता की जागरूकता व सहयोग के बिना यह कार्य संभव नहीं है। जल संव‌र्द्धन के कार्य में महिलाओं की भूमिका को महत्वपूर्ण बताया गया।

इस कार्यक्रम में महिलाओं को जोड़ने की वकालत करते हुए कहा गया कि जो विभाग जल संव‌र्द्धन के कार्य में लगे हुए है, स्वीकृत योजना के तहत इस दिशा में पहल करे। बैठक में आये विशेषज्ञों ने कोसी जलागम क्षेत्र के कृषकों व ग्राम प्रधानों का आह्वान किया कि तीन दिनों तक चलने वाले इस प्रशिक्षण कार्यक्रम का लाभ लेकर कार्यक्रम को सफल बनाने में अपना सहयोग दें। इस अवसर पर जिलाधिकारी निधिमणि त्रिपाठी ने जल संव‌र्द्धन व संरक्षण में अपने स्तर से हरसंभव सहयोग देने का आश्वासन दिया।

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720:



This is really a alarming news. Eco-system will be endangered if the rivers go dry.



--- Quote from: M S Mehta on November 27, 2007, 09:29:00 AM ---नदियों के घटते जलस्तर पर विशेषज्ञों ने जताई चिंताNov 27, 02:09 am

अल्मोड़ा। कृषकों में जागरूकता लाने की मंशा से कोसी नदी जलागम क्षेत्र के पर्यावरण संस्थान कटारमल ने तीन दिवसीय प्रशिक्षण कार्यक्रम की सोमवार को शुरूआत की गई। कार्यक्रम का उद्घाटन जिलाधिकारी निधिमणि त्रिपाठी ने किया।

इस अवसर पर विशेषज्ञों ने कोसी-गगास जैसी महत्वपूर्ण नदियों के घटते जलस्तर पर चिंता जाहिर की। उन्होंने नदियों के घटते जलस्तर पर काबू पाने तथा जलस्तर को बढ़ाने को आज की सबसे बड़ी आवश्यकता बताया। वक्ताओं का कहना था कि इस सबके लिए सबसे पहले जनप्रतिनिधियों व ग्रामीण जनता की जागरूकता व सहयोग के बिना यह कार्य संभव नहीं है। जल संव‌र्द्धन के कार्य में महिलाओं की भूमिका को महत्वपूर्ण बताया गया।

इस कार्यक्रम में महिलाओं को जोड़ने की वकालत करते हुए कहा गया कि जो विभाग जल संव‌र्द्धन के कार्य में लगे हुए है, स्वीकृत योजना के तहत इस दिशा में पहल करे। बैठक में आये विशेषज्ञों ने कोसी जलागम क्षेत्र के कृषकों व ग्राम प्रधानों का आह्वान किया कि तीन दिनों तक चलने वाले इस प्रशिक्षण कार्यक्रम का लाभ लेकर कार्यक्रम को सफल बनाने में अपना सहयोग दें। इस अवसर पर जिलाधिकारी निधिमणि त्रिपाठी ने जल संव‌र्द्धन व संरक्षण में अपने स्तर से हरसंभव सहयोग देने का आश्वासन दिया।

--- End quote ---

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720:

I feel there is still lack of awareness amongst people in UK about the eco-system and the way deforstation is on peek there, the coming future would not be of happiness.

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720:
This river Stinks
With waste and effluents being dumped into the Yamuna at uncontrollable levels, the river could soon cease to be functional

Akash Bisht Delhi

In India, rivers are worshipped, yet severely polluted. They nurture cities, towns and communities, but end up receiving the filth and waste generated by the same people who consider them sacred. The Yamuna, which flows by Delhi, is no different. Despite numerous efforts to clean it, it only seems to be getting filthier with every passing year. Experts claim that the river is 'virtually dead' when it reaches downstream with Delhi being responsible for 79 per cent of the total pollution load.

Yamuna traverses 1,375 kilometres from its source in Uttarakhand to Allahabad and maintains a good quality of water till it reaches Wazirabad in Delhi. In Delhi, 15 drains discharge their wastewater in the river, making it the most polluted river in the country with BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) levels ranging from 14 to 28 mg/l without any dissolved oxygen. Its 22 kilometre stretch in Delhi has hardly any fresh water in it and what flows is only sewage and pollutants.

Delhi generates about 3,267 million litres per day (mld) of sewage while the city's installed wastewater treatment capacity is only 2,330 mld. More than 937 mld of waste is not treated. Adding to the river's woes, out of Delhi's 2330 mld treatment capacity, more than 37 per cent is under-utilised and 1270 mld of sewage is untreated and let to flow in the river everyday. Suresh Babu, Deputy Coordinator, River Pollution Unit, Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi, says: “Delhi's treatment plants are immensely under-utilised and it can be attributed to various factors. There is a shortage of power and fresh water for dilution and the government has not done much to overcome this problem. They have cleared Rs 1,950 crore to tap drains carrying sewage from colonies not connected to city sewers. It's a temporary solution to the problem of tapping untreated sewage reaching the river but interceptors have failed in Agra, Varanasi and other places.”

To make the water fit for bathing, Yamuna needs at least 24,000 mld of fresh water for dilution, but where is the fresh water? The river lacks fresh water for almost nine months, hence a negligible amount of fresh water is let out in the river. The river has a dilution requirement of 75 per cent, implying that for every 100 litres of wastewater, 75 litres of freshwater is required. Scientists state that with the flow of fresh water, pollutants (especially organic pollutants) degrade to a large extent. But at every step, this purified water is extracted, and larger loads of pollution make their way into the river.   

Reports have confirmed that the situation is worse during the summer months when only wastewater and industrial effluents flow downstream of Wazirabad. “Since there is no fresh water downstream of Wazirabad, one can imagine what flows in Yamuna. During this dry period, discharges from the Shahadara drain also join the river downstream of the Okhla barrage, bringing effluents from east Delhi and Noida into the river,” informs RC Trivedi, Additional Director, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi. Yamuna has no fresh water upstream during the dry periods and it is only during the monsoon that river has some fresh water, and whatever water reaches Wazirabad is impounded for the city's consumption. In dry periods, the water table is very low so if water is released it is soon absorbed by the river bed. Trivedi informs, “If you release 10 cusecs of water then it won't flow for long and will soon be absorbed by the river bed.”

Trivedi has been studying Yamuna for the past 30 years and cautions, “Remember Delhi is downstream and if smaller cities upstream also start adding the same kind of waste then that day isn't far when we won't even have water to drink.” With Delhi's population rising fast, the city's water demand is also showing a steep rise, and so is domestic waste. Domestic waste contributes 80-90 per cent of Yamuna's pollution, contrary to popular belief that it's industrial waste that degrades the river.

Scientists are worried about the rising population and a large number of unauthorised colonies that are mushrooming in Delhi. These unplanned colonies are adding to Delhi's domestic waste problem as there is no sanitation system and hence a lot of domestic waste cannot be either tapped or sent to treatment plants. “Almost half of Delhi doesn't have access to sanitation or sewage and that is unacceptable. After the Supreme Court's order a number of jhuggis have been removed from the banks of the Yamuna but there are still many more unauthorised colonies without having official underground drainage systems,” says a senior Delhi Jal Board official.

Delhi's water resources have an estimated carrying capacity of eight million people, while the actual population is around 17 million. According to a report released by the CPCB, the population of Delhi is expected to reach 182 lakh by 2011. The water requirement will shoot up to 6,674 mld and wastewater generation will be more than 5,340 mld. The rapid urbanisation that the city is witnessing is not only threatening Yamuna but also the water table in the city. Yamuna only provides 60 per cent of Delhi's water needs and rest is extracted from the ground. “Delhi's total recharge capacity of groundwater is 0.3 billion cubic meters (bcm) while we are extracting .48 bcm. That is exactly one and half times more than the capacity and this is not a good sign because if we keep extracting water like this we would have huge water crisis in the city,” says a concerned Trivedi.

Massive real estate development on the floodplains of the river in the capital is threatening city's largest water feature. The soil which defines the floodplains and holds up to 60 per cent of water is slowly and steadily being consumed by private real estate developers. The flood plains are under threat with existing developments like the Akshardham Complex, Delhi Secretariat, Delhi Metro and Commonwealth Games Village. With this increasing encroachment of the floodplains the city water woes are likely to increase in near future.

At CSE, scientists say it is the administration and the government that is to be blamed for most of the river's woes. “Delhi Jal Board wastes more than 40 per cent water during transit. The government has wasted a lot of money and Yamuna has got even dirtier. They are accountable for this,” complains Babu. He further states that Delhi wastes a lot of water and people need to learn to save it before it is too late. Babu also alleges that the whole ammonia issue that hit the headlines recently is not fair because the cities that live downstream of Delhi never complain. “Whenever the ammonia level in the water rises there is a hue and cry and Delhi government starts blaming the Haryana government. What I don't understand is that why does UP never put any political pressure on Delhi? Agra is downstream of Delhi and has to clean and drink the same water that flows in Yamuna from Delhi. Go ask the engineers in Agra and they will tell you about the quality of water they receive after Yamuna passes Delhi,” says Babu.

There are hundreds of other small towns and cities on the banks of Yamuna upstream from Delhi. Things could get worse if they start following Delhi's footsteps and pollute the river. Babu cautions, “With the kind of urbanisation that we are witnessing, the water would soon become untreatable when it reaches Delhi. We should always remember that we live downstream.”

Trivedi suggests certain steps that could be taken to save the Yamuna and other rivers — “We are the wettest country in the world and receive more than 4,000 bcm water through rainfall every year, but we use only 634 bcm. If we could raise our storage capacity by water harvesting then we could use that extra water for several other purposes and that in turn would take the load off our rivers.”

Some believe that wastewater should rather be used for irrigation as it contains nutrients for crops, while industries should have their own treatment plants and recycle the same water. “If we need to save the Yamuna we will have to reduce our wastage, stop urbanisation, the administration will need to have a better water management policy and above all stop effluents from reaching the river. Only then will our future generations have water to drink,” concludes Babu.

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