Proactive disaster management

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Copied from: E-paper Times of India, 27 Dec 2008, Page 9http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?Daily=NGTOI & login=default & AW=1230517619218as fair use.Vijay---------------------------------------------------------

Himalayan villages on warming frontline

Kyangjin Gompa (Nepal): Standing in the Himalayan valley of Langtang, Rinjin Dorje Lama remembers where he used to play as a child in the 1960s. "When I was a kid, it was a lot longer," said Lama, pointing at the Lirung glacier surrounded by snowy peaks on Nepal's northern border with Tibet. "We used to play on the glacier, and it came right down to the monastery, but now it's about two kilometres further back," he said. Temperatures in the Himalayas are rising by around 0.06°C annually, according to a long-term study by the Nepalese department of hydrology. The rate is far above the global average given last year by the UN's senior scientists, who said surface temperatures have risen by a total of 0.74°C over the past 100 years. "I feel that the sun is getting stronger, and in the past there used to be a lot more snow in winter. We used to get up to two metres in the winter, and it would stay for weeks. Last winter we only had two centimetres," Lama added. On top of unpredictable weather, other dangers are increasing in Nepal's mountains because of climate change. As the meltwater flows off the glacier, lakes begin to form and grow. When the pressure becomes too great, the lake walls burst and release millions of cubic tonnes of water that can wash away people, villages and arable land. Researchers at the Nepalbased International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development have said five major glacial lake floods have hit Nepal since 1970, as well as at least two in Tibet and one in Bhutan. The World Wildlife Fund for nature (WWF) has calculated that there are 2,000 glacial lakes forming in Nepal and around 20 are in danger of bursting. AFP