The Gomukh glacier is the source of the Ganges, amidst the snow-capped Himalayas. The sight is truly astonishing, mere words can't explain that. For long this place was almost inaccessible. Many who used to venture out ........never returned back.
Human Interference
Thanks to modern technology and better transport this is the latest addition to India's religio-adventure tourism circuit — the other two being Vaishno Devi in the north and Sabarimala in the south. Every year more than a lakh of people visit Gomukh in the month of July. They have to be young to undertake this gruelling task. All of them return with a pot of water from the Gomukh glacier the ice from which becomes the Ganges River.
Is the Glacier Receding?
According to Hindu scriptures, Gangotri is the spot where the Ganges descended from the locks of Shiva. The temple of Ganges is also located at Gangotri. Locals believe that many years ago, the tip of the glacier was at Gangotri, but Gomukh, where the Ganges rises, has now recedekilometersetres downstream.
Human Interference
Thanks to modern technology and better transport this is the latest addition to India's religio-adventure tourism circuit — the other two being Vaishno Devi in the north and Sabarimala in the south. Every year more than a lakh of people visit Gomukh in the month of July. They have to be young to undertake this gruelling task. All of them return with a pot of water from the Gomukh glacier the ice from which becomes the Ganges River.
Is the Glacier Receding?
According to Hindu scriptures, Gangotri is the spot where the Ganges descended from the locks of Shiva. The temple of Ganges is also located at Gangotri. Locals believe that many years ago, the tip of the glacier was at Gangotri, but Gomukh, where the Ganges rises, has now recedekilometersetres downstream.
British traveler Samuel Burn once wrote that when he reached Gangotri in 1866, the local people opposed his wish to travel further to Gomukh. According to Burn, they believed that Gangotri is the holiest place and human interference in Gomukh is non-religious.
The Gangotri glacier has been melting as the part of global changes after the last Ice Age. But scientists say the rate of melting has doubled since1970s1970s.
A tragedy in the offing
According to Glaciologist the rate of melting has since increased due to the emission of green house gases more predominantly due to human intervention. The consequence........earlier, there were nine tributaries to the Gangotri glacier now we are left with five.
To make the matter worse Gangotri is not only receding, but the dimensions of the glacier have decreased considerably in the last few years. I fear if this continues, we may end up with the Ganges being a monsoon-fed river by the end of this century.
Even the WWF echoes the same sentiments.
(According to our studies, due to the rise in temperature, the river flow will increase by 20 per cent initially because of more snow melt. But, ultimately, the flow will decrease by 20 per cent. A population equal to Europe lives in the Ganges basin. Their livelihoods are dependent on the river. You can imagine the size of the tragedy we are talking about here.)
But is anyone listening???
I guess the Government is not prepared to deal with this issue, since the glacier tourism is generating enough revenues!!!!
According to our Hindu scriptures the river Ganges will return to heaven by the end of this yug (though I severly doubt the prediction methods they must have used)
But at the rate the pollution of this sensitive environment continues, the prediction could become true.
What serious climatic changes will that accompany?? Are we prepared to see that catastrophe and live with it??
