NEW DELHI, 26 Apr: The National Green Tribunal has sought a response from the Centre and others regarding the danger hanging glaciers pose in the mountain slopes of central Himalaya.
The green body was hearing a matter where it had taken suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report citing a study which flagged the environmental concern.
In an order dated 24 April, a bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member Afroz Ahmad said, “The news item relates to danger posed by hanging glaciers on mountain slopes in central Himalaya, where unstable hanging glaciers on steep mountain slopes could trigger devastating avalanches and downstream disasters, a new study focused on a sensitive section of the central Himalaya has warned.”
The bench referred to the report and said four researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar and the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Chandigarh, had assessed such glaciers in the Alaknanda basin of Uttarakhand, a key headstream region of the Ganga.
It said, “Their findings revealed the scale of the growing but largely overlooked danger, and a sharp rise in human exposure, driven by rapid development in high-altitude areas. The newspaper states that such retreat has led to the detachment of tributary glaciers from trunk glaciers and has destabilised mountain glaciers (glaciers located on mountain sides) that were previously stable.”
The bench also noted that using satellite imagery, elevation models and avalanche simulations, the researchers had assessed the farthest potential distance ice avalanches could travel and their likely impact, and they concluded that in a worst-case scenario, modelled flows could reach major settlements, including Mana, Badrinath and Hanuman Chatti in Uttarakhand.
“The researchers argued that adopting targeted monitoring in high-risk Himalayan locations could significantly reduce future risks. While full-scale systems may be difficult to implement across such vast terrain, they said that identifying the most perilous glaciers and focusing resources would be a practical first step,” it said, citing the report.
The tribunal said the report indicated violation of the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, besides raising substantial issues relating to compliance with the environmental norms.
It has officially added the union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Central Pollution Control Board, National Mission for Clean Ganga, Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, and National Institute of Hydrology as the respondents in the proceedings.
“Issue notice to the above respondents for filing their response/reply at least one week before the next hearing date (on 6 August),” the tribunal said. (PTI)
