Research reveals decrease in water volume of Ganga due to retreating Glaciers

Recently, scientists have found out the important reason for the decrease of water in the Ganges. Scientists from IISc and IIT have discovered that 59 square miles of glaciers have decreased in this region in the last 50 years by exploring the Alaknanda basin, which gives the most water to the Ganges. That is, between 1968 and 2020, the area of ​​​​glacier has decreased by about 8 percent. Scientists say that climate change at the regional level is the main reason behind this.

This study, which lasted for about two years, has been published in the Geocarto Journal, according to which the rate of glacier slip in the basin has been estimated at 11.75 meters per year. The study was based on field observations and satellite data provided by the United States Geological Survey. The analysis of the basin based on climatic parameters provides sufficient evidence that global warming, especially in winter, has been responsible for the increase in temperature by 0.03 Celsius.

Study from satellite images

The team of scientists extensively studied all the satellite images from the year 1968 till now and found that the area of ​​glacier in the river basin has decreased. However, the number of glaciers increased from 98 to 116.  Scientists have found that many parts of the glacier have separated from the main glacier.

The reason for this is climate change. Therefore, scientists believe that the increase in the number of glaciers is not a matter of happiness. Because small glaciers are melting in such a way that their water is not going into the rivers. Due to which the water crisis is arising. Rather, being small, these glaciers are melting quickly and forming small lakes nearby.

Flood threat on mountains

If these glaciers continue to melt like this in future, then due to the excess water in the newly formed lakes, there may be floods on the mountains and other catastrophes like Kedarnath.

Not only this, along with the decrease of glacier in the Alaknanda basin, the silt is also increasing because of the lack of flow in the river. However, the reason for increasing siltation is more man-made than climate change. According to scientists, there has been a 38 percent increase in the amount of silt in the Alaknanda basin between 2000 and 2020.