Rajendra Pachauri, a member of the prime minister’s (PM’s) advisory council on climate change and director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri), has dismissed as “unscientific” a report released by Union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh that claims Himalayan glaciers have stopped melting.
This is the second major instance when a point of view endorsed by Ramesh has been strongly contested. The previous instance was when he had suggested that India accept carbon emission cuts.
Pachauri, who is also chairman of the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), said the report prepared by geologist VK Raina was based on “insufficient data” and “unsubstantiated observations” made over a small two-year period.
While Pachauri was not in town, a Teri spokesperson said he disagreed with Raina’s findings which flew in the face of well-researched and documented studies by thousands of IPCC scientists.
Pachauri pointed out that Raina’s research was still to be reviewed and authenticated by peers. “It is like schoolboy science,” he said. Teri glaciologist Shresth Tayal questioned Raina’s conclusion that the melting of the Gangotri glacier had “come to a stand still”. He said, “If rain is scarce for two years, can one say drought is here forever?”
Certain aspects of Raina’s study were self-contradictory, Tayal said. For example, it claims that glaciers in western Himalayas are melting faster but also says the Siachen glacier is advancing. Even the conclusion that glacier melting is more pronounced in western Himalayas than eastern Himalayas was wrong, Tayal pointed out.
“Our research shows all lakes formed by melting of glaciers are in eastern Himalayas. A glacier in Sikkim, East Rathong, has reportedly lost over 80% of its mass. No one has recorded a glacial lake in western Himalayas,” he said.
Tayal also dismissed Raina’s claim that ice in the Himalayas would not melt as it was at higher altitude whereas at the poles, it would melt. “He overlooks the obvious. Poles are located at higher latitude and never get direct sunlight. In the Himalayas, sunrays are more direct and heat trapping is higher,” he pointed out.
