32,392 glaciers draining into India, says ISRO

Tribune News Service

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, February 8

A glacier inventory generated by the Space Application Centre of ISRO using satellite data from 2004 to 2010 show that 32,392 glaciers covering over 71,000 sq km are draining into the Indian territory. These glaciers are in the Indus, Ganga and the Brahmaputra basins encompassing the Himalayas, Trans-Himalaya and Karakoram regions.

During the second phase of the project, the work was extended to map glaciers draining into neighbouring countries. This showed 2,527 additional glaciers, a report by the Department of Space tabled in Parliament today said.

Glacier monitoring has been carried out for select glaciers using satellite data to figure out the general trend of the glacier dynamics. Changes in the size of glaciers between 1962 and 2001 were assessed for 2,630 glaciers. The data on the glacier size for 1962 was taken from Survey of India (SOI) topographical maps as reference and that of 2001 was taken from satellite details. The study showed loss of 13.4 per cent in area of glaciers.

In continuation, monitoring of change in the size of 2,018 glaciers was carried out using satellite data. It indicated that 87 per cent of the glaciers had showed no change, 12 per cent had retreated and one per cent had advanced. It showed a net loss of 20.94 sq km in the total area of 10,250.68 sq km for all monitored glaciers mapped in 2000-01.

Further, 5,234 glaciers were monitored between 2001 and 2018 across the Himalayan-Karakoram region from Kashmir to Sikkim using satellite data and limited Landsat data. The 5,234 ice bodies included 3,435 debris-free glaciers also. In the Karakoram region, 2,058 glacier bodies were checked and mapped. In this region, gain in area (0.056 per cent) has been observed.

3 million at risk of flooding: Study

• Three million people in India are at risk of flooding caused by glacial lakes, the highest number of those exposed in the world, according to a new study
• The study by scientists at UK’s Newcastle University, UK, is the first global assessment of areas at the greatest risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF)
• These lakes can suddenly burst and create a fast-flowing GLOF that can spread over a large distance from the original site — more than 120 kilometres in some cases

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