Itanagar, Nov 9 (PTI) Arunachal Pradesh Science and Technology minister Honchun Ngandam flagged off a 10-day expedition which will study various issues related to glaciers in Arunachal Himalaya.
The glacier expedition is being jointly formed by the scientists of the Goa-based National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies, here.
Ngandam on Wednesday said for the first time such a team is going to investigate and undertake various issues related to glacier studies in Arunachal Himalaya.
“It is important to develop expertise and capability for studying glaciers of Arunachal Pradesh by the team of competent groups helping each other in developing expertise,” he said.
The team comprising six scientists is being led by Dr Parmanand Sharma from National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research.
The team would transverse through the routes of Jang, Mago, Zemithang, Marethang and Khangri in Tawang district of the northeastern state.
Due to climate change globally, the glaciers of various areas including Arunachal Pradesh are receding at the rate of 25 to 30 metre per year (as per IPCC report), informed Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies director Tana Tage.
He said that the team of experts will investigate and study the parameters which are impacting the glaciers melt and also study the water balance that creates disaster with the combination of rainfall and snowmelt.
Additionally, the possibilities for setting up a glacier monitoring laboratory will be explored by the team, Tage added.
There are mainly four glacier basins (Manas, Kameng, Subansiri and Dibang) in Arunachal Himalaya with 161 glaciers covering 223 sq km.
The team has identified the Khangri glacier and Daisaphu glacier in Arunachal Pradesh for potential preliminary reconnaissance studies.
The Khangri glacier is situated in the Kameng basin and the Daisaphu glacier is located in the Subansiri basin of Arunachal Pradesh at an altitude of around 5,000 to 5,500 metres bordering China. Physical accessibility to identify glaciers is an important parameter to select for glaciological studies.
Tage said the benefit of such studies would be to develop the capacity and capability of the Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies in the area of Glaciology.
This would be very informative to understand the behaviours of glaciers in the event of climate change and also the possibilities for Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), he added. PTI UPL RG
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