Climate Change Impacts: Central Himalaya

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief description of glaciers in Uttarakhand Himalaya and witnessed the impact of climate changes over the past few decades. Glaciers are inhomogeneously distributed from north-west to south-east along Himalaya, and recent studies have brought out that shrinking of glaciers is taking place at alarming rate. Observations over Central Himalayan region have revealed an average retreat of glaciers about 17 m in last six decades, and Gangotri, Chaurabari, Pindari, and Dokriani are some of the major glaciers of Uttarakhand Himalaya that have experienced the impact of climate change. The Central Himalayan region is endowed with efficient hydrological cycle fed by prevailing favorable weather patterns such as western disturbances in winter and monsoons in summer, but there has been a general trend of depleting water availability at source region due to climate change in past century. Climate change has adversely affected the water resources, forest and biodiversity, agriculture and human health; all these aspects are summarized in the context of Uttarakhand state. As per IPCC 2013 report and the analysis of long period available data on rainfall suggests that extreme weather events and natural disasters are likely to increase. An example of natural disaster took place at Deoli village in Almora district is also presented.