Climate Change, Glacier Lakes, and Livelihoods

Abstract

The paper deals with relationship between climate change, glacial lakes, and livelihoods in Northern Himachal Himalaya. To qualify this objective, primarily meteorological data of temperature and rainfall in Bhuntar, Manali, Dharamsala, and Mandi for a period of 30 years ranging from 1977 to 2007 has been obtained. Mean minimum temperatures of all stations are showing an increasing trend of varying degree, ranging from 0.1 °C in Dharamsala to 2 °C in Mandi. In the Spiti valley, maximum surface temperature has increased at the height of 4,000–5,000 m. Satellite imageries of Landsat TM and Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) have been acquired from GLCF and Earth Explorer for the year 2011. Mapping of glacial lakes has been done using Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Normalized Difference Pond Index (NDPI). Climatic variability in the region results into formation of large number of glacial lakes at the snout position due to rapid rate of glacier melt. Glacial lakes are a common feature at altitudes of 4,500–5,500 m in many river basins of the Northern Himachal Himalaya. A total of 65 glacial lakes have been identified in the region. These glacier lakes are one of the main sources of livelihoods in the region, but sometime they also pose threat to the ecosystem services to villages on account of glacial lake outburst flood.