Climate shift behind disaster, say experts

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 7

Experts are citing climate change as a reason behind Uttarakhand ‘glacier burst’, while urging the government to spend more resources in monitoring the region better so that there is more information about the changed process.

Dr Anjal Prakash, author of the ongoing sixth assessment report of the said prima facie it looked like a climate change event as glaciers were melting due to global warming.

According to the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere (SROCC), “glacier retreat and permafrost thaw are projected to decrease the stability of mountain slopes and increase the number and area of glacier lakes” and “resulting landslides and floods, and cascading events, will also emerge where there is no record of previous events”.

“There is possibility that current global glacier shrinkage caused new lakes to form,” it says.