Pachauri rings alarm on glaciers

NEW DELHI: Noted environmentalist R K Pachauri said the Himalayan glaciers are melting at a “very rapid pace” on Tuesday, but did not refer to his earlier assertion that the glaciers could disappear by 2035, for which he had come under sharp attack from the government and others.

“Glaciers are melting at a very rapid pace,” Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said when asked if he still maintains that Himalayan glaciers could disappear
by 2035.

“Though the issue is part of one of the eight mission of National Action plan for climate change announced in 2008, nothing concrete has been done so far to address the problem,” Pachauri said.

“Little concern has been shown by the government over the recession of the Himalayan glaciers which has wide environmental ramifications for the South Asian nations,” Pachauri, director general of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) added.

Even a study to assess the damage has not begun, he lamented.

Earlier, Pachauri had defended his team over forecasting disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035. This had kicked up a controversy with the government strongly contesting the forecast.