(TibetanReview.net, Nov25’24) – Glaciers on the Dhauladhar mountain ranges are reported to have been receding at a fast pace, raising the likelihood of water scarcity in the Kangra valley it overlooks, which includes Dharamshala, the exile home to the Dalai Lama and the headquarter of the exile Tibetan administration.
The glaciers in the Dhauladhars are small in size but play a major role in round-the-year water supply to rivulets flowing through the Kangra valley, reported the tribuneindia.com Nov 22, citing a recent study by scientists.
The study, conducted by four scientists – Shahi Kant Rai and Sunil Dhar of the Central University of Jammu, Rakesh Sahu from Galgotias university and Arun Kumar from Himachal Pradesh University – has established that a number of glaciers in the Dhauladhars have receded while the number of glacial lakes in the region has increased between 2000 and 2020, the report said.
The study, published in the Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing in Mar 2024 and based on satellite imagery of the Dhauladhars, has established that the glaciers in the region that were spread over about 50.8 square kilometres have reduced to 42.84 square kilometre between 2010 and 2020. At the same time, the number of glacial lakes in the Dhauladhars has increased from 36 in 2000 to 43 in 2020, the report cited the study as saying.
The scientists have said this increase in the number of glacial lakes in the Dhauladhars is indicative of fast melting glaciers in the region. Increased accumulation of winter temperature is stated to be the primary cause of the reduction of glacier coverage.
The scientists have spoken of the existence of strong evidences suggesting that there had been complete deglaciations because of climate change.
The increase in the number of glacial lakes requires the formulation of a risk assessment strategy for future lake outbursts in the region, the scientists are stated to have concluded in the study.
The Dhauladhars originate in the east of the Rohtang Pass in Kullu district and span across entire Kangra district. They terminate in the northwestern region of Dalhousie in Chamba district. These mountains exhibit a range of 1,000 m to more than 6,000 m above sea level, with a mean height of 4,000 m.
The Dhauldhars are also a source of the Ravi River, a transboundary river of India and Pakistan that originates in the Bara Bhangal region of the Kangra valley. It eventually drains into the Arabian Sea (Indian Ocean) through the Indus River in Pakistan.
Prof AK Mahajan from the Department of Environment Science in the Central University Himachal of Pradesh (CUHP) has explained that the Dhauladhar range is not part of the Himalayas. Rather, it is a comparatively small Batholithic mountain range extending from Mandi to Kangra district.
Batholithic mountains are large emplacements of igneous intrusive rocks that are formed from cool magna deep in the earth’s crust, he has added.