| LEH: Ladakh is no longer pristine. Rising temperatures are drying up
glaciers in this trans-Himalayan cold desert and generator smoke from the
power-strapped towns across the rugged mountains in northernmost India are
eating into the fragile ecosystem, destroying its sparse green cover.
"The effect of climate change is very high in the mountains. More than 10
percent of the glaciers have melted and at the most I give Ladakh another
30-40 years, if measures are not taken to save the fragile ecosystem and
conserve water," Sonam Gorjyes, director of the Ladakh Ecological Group,
said.The signs of change are apparent in the topography.
Barely 15 km from crowded Leh lies a desolate stretch of white sand dotted
with nearly 50 small Buddhist shrines at the foot of a mountain, next to an
ancient palace of the king of Ladakh.
A decade ago, Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan and actress Monisha Koirala
smouldered on the exotic stretch in an emotionally-packed shot in Mani
Ratnam's hit movie "Dil Se".
Ten years on, the little bend along the river Indus is home to a settlement,
shacks, a tourist spot and acute water scarcity.
In the district headquarters, Leh, the scene is even more alarming.
Depleting ground water, ghetto-like buildings, an explosion of hotels, guest
houses, motels, eateries and bazaars that run on diesel generators from noon
till dawn, and a profusion of SUVs and cars belching noxious fumes make for
a visitors' nightmare.
The pungent smoke of the diesel first hits the eyes and then the nose as one
enters the town. Coupled with the thin oxygen cover at an altitude of over
3,500 metres, the process of breathing stabilisation and altitude
acclimatisation takes longer than the mandatory 24 hours.
"Do not move for at least 36 hours and roll up the windows of your vehicle,"
instructs the taxi driver with an anti-pollution shield covering his nose
and mouth.
At least 40 percent of people in the town working outside homes cover their
faces to avoid the diesel smoke -- which does not dissipate easily in the
thin air.
The construction of flush toilets in hotels, army bases and modern
apartments have added to the water woes because the water used cannot be
recycled owing to the absence of recycling systems, eco-experts rued.
"The water system in Ladakh is snow-fed. Precipitation is less than 40 mm a
year. So, most of the villages and towns, including Leh, is dependent on the
melting snow. Statistics compiled by the Indian Air Force shows that
temperature of Ladakh has risen by one degree Celsius over the last 35 years
which is alarming for the region," said Gorjyes, whose group has been
working for the last 25 years to promote renewable energy in the area.
The average humidity in Ladakh is below 40 percent.
A group of green NGOs met here in April to discuss climate change. The
report of their deliberations, published by the UN organisation for mountain
ecology, ICIMOD, said 35 percent of the glaciers in the region will
disappear by another 20 years and temperatures across the Tibetan and
trans-Himalayan region will rise by 2.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.
The Himalayas have around 45,000 glaciers.
The boom in tourism, the lifeline of this ancient trading post spread across
97,000 square km along the Himalayan and Karakoram Silk Route, is
accelerating degradation, local eco-tourist operators said.
According to department of wildlife officials who met the operators for the
first time June 30 in Leh to discuss curbs on tourism to save Ladakh's
environment, "75,000 tourists visited the district in 2008 and the number
would go up by 2009-end".
Ladakh, said Jigmet Thakpa, chief conservator and wildlife warden of the
district, "boasted of a wide biodiversity with 36 mammals, 309 species of
birds, 370 species of butterflies, 11 reptiles and 22 types of fish found in
the streams.
"But they have to be protected. We are trying to change to the nature of
tourism in the countryside by building 300 homestays in the state with
women's self-help groups and have restricted indiscriminate use of water and
littering."
The district has just been brought under the purview of the
Non-Biodegradable Material Management Handling and Disposal Act (2007)
passed by the Jammu and Kashmir government. The notification was issued May
14.
"Women's groups are monitoring the imposition of the ban on
non-biodegradable material across the district. The situation is alarming.
All the small glaciers are gone," said filmmaker Stanzin Dorjai Gya, whose
movie on Ladakh, "Living With Climate Change", has been screened worldwide.
Laments divisional forest officer of Leh B. Balaji: "The whole world is
focussing on islands, while high altitude cold deserts like Ladakh are being
ignored. The crops are in peril due to locust attacks from China. It might
result in a famine-like situation any time. |
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