Climate change threaten Bhutan’s Future
Bhutan, a part of the Eastern Himalayas, is a tiny land-locked country hosting rich biodiversity apart from glaciers and snow-capped mountains. With ~70% of Bhutan under forest cover, this water-rich country promises to maintain at least 60% of the landmass under forest in perpetuity at any given point of time. Yet, climate change hasn’t pardoned this carbon-neutral nation. This article conveys a brief idea about the dent that climate change is leaving on the glacier environment in Bhutan.
These glacier lakes have been forming and expanding all over the Hindu Kush Himalayas due to climate change. As the temperature rises and glaciers melt faster, water starts accumulating at their snouts, because the rate of the melt becomes faster than the ability of the loose scree and moraine surrounding the snout to drain the water away.
The accumulated water forms a lake that keeps getting bigger each year as the problem keeps getting worse. And since these lakes are bounded only by loose pebbles and moraine, the walls are prone to collapse as the weight of water, ice and snow keep increasing. A GLOF of this kind had caused havoc in India’s Uttarakhand state in 2013.
“With global warming, glaciers are melting and our water resources are moving faster downstream. We call it a tsunami in the sky, that can come anytime,” said Karma Drupchu, the national director of the country’s National Center for Hydrology & Meteorology (NCHM).
The region’s tallest peaks have never been scaled by man, nor have its picturesque lakes been disturbed. It is out of respect – locals believe the mountains, lakes and glaciers are deities, to be honored and feared.
Yet it is the impacts of manmade global emissions that is slowly destroying them nonetheless. Rising temperatures as a result of climate change are accelerating the rate of glacial melt in Bhutan’s highlands. In the silence of the mountain, now, danger looms – a killer that could unleash at any moment.
“The country’s slope-dominated agricultural activities and heavy reliance on glacier-fed lakes for hydropower, tourism, and water could face immense challenges in the coming decades without global efforts to slow climate change,” said Bindu Lohani, ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development.
Glaciers are spiritually important for Bhutan, as well as being a critical resource. For some glaciers, annual retreat levels are up to 35m, feeding massive amounts of water into surrounding lakes. The risk of these lakes collapsing – in a phenomenon known as a glacial lake outburst flood or GLOF – has the entire country on edge.
“Melting glaciers and other climate change-linked extremes pose a serious threat to Bhutan’s economy, and could cause annual losses of over 6% of gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of this century,” said a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) climate and economics report for South Asia.
Any major disturbance on Thorthormi Lake could result in a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), potentially with a huge cost to life, property and infrastructure.
Analysis by NCHM has identified 2674 glacial lakes, of which 17 are categorized as potentially dangerous. Further accelerated melting of the country’s 700 individual glaciers means more lakes are being formed and the dangers for the country’s population and infrastructure is increasing.
By Karishma Gwalani
