Himalayan glacier melting impact on Brahmaputra

The Brahmaputra is the lifeline of Assam, but for how long? UN Secretary-General António Guterres has sounded the alarm that "as glaciers and ice sheets continue to recede over the coming decades, major Himalayan rivers like the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra will feel the impact, seeing their flows reduced." The global community's willingness to rally behind the people depending on the Brahmaputra and other Himalayan rivers for life and livelihood will determine if the governments of the basin countries will join hands to prevent the crisis staring them in the face. The UN Secretary-General warned, in his remark at the side event at the side event on the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation to be observed in 2025, of catastrophic consequences if the trend of glacier and ice sheet melting is not reversed. Guterres has echoed the apprehension raised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that "river runoff in snow dominated and glacier-fed river basins will change further in amount and seasonality in response to projected snow cover and glacier decline with negative impacts on agriculture, hydropower and water quality in some regions". Information presented to the Parliament by the Ministry of Earth Sciences uncovered the alarming trend of glaciers feeding the Brahmaputra and the Ganga are melting at a faster rate as compared to glaciers in the Karakoram region. The government informed the Lok Sabha in February that the Geological Survey of India has conducted mass balance studies on nine glaciers and carried out secular movement studies on 81 glaciers to access the recessional and advancement pattern of the glacier and that the majority of Himalayan glaciers are observed melting or retreating at varying rates in different regions. That the problem has been known to the Government of India is evident from the Ministry of Science and Technology initiating the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem way back in 2010 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The primary objective of the mission is to develop a sustainable national capacity to continuously assess the health status of the Himalayan ecosystem, enable policy bodies in their policy formulation functions, and assist states in the Indian Himalayan Region with the implementation of actions selected for sustainable development. The mission document noted that glacial melt may impact their long-term lean-season flows, with adverse impacts on the economy in terms of water availability and hydropower generation. The recession of Himalayan glaciers will pose a major danger to the country. The document also highlights ecologically sensitive mountainous areas, like the Himalaya, are prone toadverse impacts of global climate changes on account of both natural causesand anthropogenic emissions in other parts of the world as well as those arisingout of unplanned developmental activities in the region. The Himalayan Ecosystem Resources are critical in the face of natural disturbances, anthropogenic activities, and climate change and have important implications for the formulation of management strategies and the sustenance of dependent human societies, it adds. The mission attempts to address some important issues concerning Himalayan Glaciers and the associated hydrological consequences, biodiversity conservation and protection, wildlife conservation and protection, traditional knowledge societies and their livelihood and planning for sustaining of the Himalayan Ecosystem. "The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) harbours about 8000 species of flowering plants, i.e., nearly 50% of the total flowering plants of India. Of this, nearly 30% are endemic to the region. There are over 816 tree species, 675 edibles, and nearly 1740 species of medicinal value in the IHR," states the document, which sheds light on the gigantic challenges of conservation of such a rich ecosystem posed by unabated glacier melting. The time has come to undertake a comprehensive assessment to ascertain if the country is on the right track to deal with the emerging crisis and prevent a catastrophe. The Brahmaputra being an international river and its basin spread over China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh international cooperation among the basin countries to prevent glacier melting and addressing climate change impact in the Himalayan region is crucial in India achieving the goals and objectives of the national mission. China being the upper riparian country, it sharing the hydrological data and all hydropower and other projects on the Brahmaputra with India and Bangladesh is critical to sustaining life and livelihood in the lower riparian areas like the northeast region and dealing with climate change impacts. Reduced water flow will put the lives of millions of people dependent on the Brahmaputra River in grave danger. Hydrodiplomacy winning over geopolitics and occupying the central stage of discourse on transboundary Himalayan rivers is essential to preparing the ground for international cooperation in reversing the trend of glacier melting. The Himalayan glaciers must be protected from the impact of global warming and climate change impact so that life and livelihood of people in Assam and other areas of the Brahmaputra basin remain sustainable.