REPEAT PHOTOGRAPHY EXPEDITION TO GANGOTRI GLACIER REGION 2010

[Vipul Dhasmana]

Press Release Uttarkashi, 12 June 2010: For the first time in the history of Indian mountaineering, a repeat photography expedition to Gangotri group of glaciers is being conducted by a six member team from June 13 to June 30, 2010. The team is led by Dr. (Ms. ) Harshwanti Bist, Fellow of Royal Geographic Society. ‘REPEAT PHOTOGRAPHY EXPEDITION TO GANGOTRI GLACIER REGION 2010’ is being done in the light of global warming and climate change. The expedition will earmark the exact situation of the present state of glaciers by recreating similar landscaping which was once done by Mr. Samual Burn in 1866. By comparitive landscape photography, the difference between the past and the present status of the glacial region will be established so that the variation in the topography over the period of 144 years could be researched by the experts. Sponsored by Indian Mountaineering Foundation the expedition team comprises of following members:- 1.      Dr. (Ms.) Harshwanti Bist – Team Leader, Uttarakhand 2.      Ms. Vasumathi Srinivasan – Vice – President, Karnataka Mountaineering Association, Karnataka 3.      Mr. Ratan Singh Chauhan – Former Chief Instructor, Nehru Institute of Mountainnering, Uttarakhand 4.      Mr. Vipul Dhasmana – Director - Programmes, World Integrity Center, Uttarakhand 5.      Ms. Pushpa Chauhan – Photo journalist 6.      Mr. Anil Singh Rawat – Botanist Himlayan Association for Development and Research Initiatives (HADRI), Uttarkashi,  is supporting the group for the conservation of ecology. During this expedition, the team members with the support of HADRI will plant saplings at Bhojbasa. The team will be utilizing Global Positioning System and Google Earth for precision mapping with the expertise and vast experience of the mountaineers embedded as team members to create a bench mark for further studies on glacialogy. The research photography will be conducted at Bhairon Ghati, Dharali, Gangotri, Chirbasa, Bhojbasa, Tapovan, Nandanvan etc.     Backgrounder The assessment of the scientists that human-caused global warming will produce droughts and floods across the world, that glaciers and ice sheets would melt, resulting in floods and rising sea levels as well as extreme weather events over the next century. “The international community now widely agrees that climate change will constitute one of the major challenges of the 21st century”, says the Director-General of UNESCO, K. Matsuura. Therefore he calls for “an integrated approach to issues of environmental preservation and sustainable development”. Mountaineers who love the mountains and climb the mountains are bound to take some steps to save the mountain environment for our own survival and for the future generations too. Otherwise it will be too late to act. The snow covered mountain peaks and the glaciers are the perennial water bodies. Thirty-forty years back nobody would have thought that such catastrophic condition will arise with human efforts of development. The melting of glaciers around the world is affecting the appearance of sites inscribed for their outstanding beauty and destroying the habitat of wildlife species and the existence of human being. Rapid melting of glaciers is already increasing the magnitude and frequency of catastrophic floods downstream. The continued melting will eventually affect the availability of life-giving water for drinking, food production, hydro power generation and ecosystem maintenance. Changes in the atmospheric temperature and in the rate of rainfall will affect the equilibrium between the amount of precipitation stored in winter and the melt during summer. The melting season of snow coincides with the rainy season in the Himalayas. Consequently, any intensification of rainfall is likely to contribute to the rapid disappearance of snow and ice. These changes could have disastrous effects on human lives with flooding resulting from glacial lake outbursts threatening human settlements. The establishment of monitoring and early warning systems and the artificial draining of glacial lakes are recommended to help avoid disasters. The global average temperature increase projected by the end of the century ranges from 1.4 to 5.8 degrees C. The UNESCO report states that a 4 degree C increase of atmospheric temperature would eliminate nearly all glaciers on Earth. Why this Expedition- The glaciers, which regulate the water supply to the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, are believed to be retreating at a rate of about 10-15m (33-49ft) each year. The world faces an economic and development catastrophe if the rate of global warming isn't reduced Jennifer Morgan, WWF. Hundreds of millions of people throughout China and the Indian subcontinent - most of whom live far from the Himalayas - rely on water supplied from these rivers. Many live on flood plains highly vulnerable to raised water levels. And vast numbers of farmers rely on regular irrigation to grow their crops successfully. Latest document, the discussion paper of the Ministry of Environment and Forest about the Himalayan Glaciers says, "the recession of the Gangotri glacier had been showing a rather rapid retreat at an average of around 20m per year till up to 2000 AD, which had led to the imaginative prediction of the end of this glacier in next 35 years or so. In actual fact, since 2001AD rate of the retreat has come down considerably and between September 2007 and June 2009 this glacier is practically at stand still." Whereas the ISRO findings say that for the last 30-35 years the snout of the Gangotri glacier has gone back 1.5 km. Today, world over the recession of the glacier snouts are closely monitored and studied, the Himalayan glaciers are carelessly studied and monitored. Now it is high time that we should not only watch these glaciers carefully but take care of them properly. Otherwise it will be too late to react on such important perennial sources of the water. Therefore this expedition has been planned to take repeat photographs of Gangotri glacier region. Photographs of those glacial sites will be taken which had been photographed earlier and to compare them for the actual recession of the glaciers. In future these pictures will be of immense value for those who will be studying the health of the glaciers of Gangotri region. Plan of Action- During this expedition Gangotri and the tributary glaciers will be visited and photographed. It will be tried to repeat the photos of Late Mr. Samuel Burn of 1866. This will give clarity to the recession or the increase of the glaciers. It will be tried to photograph the Gangotri group of glaciers. Halts are proposed at many places during the work. This is for the better acclimatization of the non mountaineering members. Dr. (Ms. Harshwanti Bist) 12.06.2010 Uttarkashi Mobile: 9412026580 Vipul Dhasmana: 9412303906