Himalayan glaciers continue to melt rapidly: Pachauri

Noted environmentalist R K Pachauri has insisted the Himalayan glaciers are melting at a 'very rapid speed'. However, he did not refer to his earlier assertion -- that the Himalayan 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 speed," Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said when asked if he still maintains that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.

Despite the fact that the issue is "serious", he said "little concern has been shown by the government so far to address the issue of melting of Himalayan glaciers."

"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 told PTI.

"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.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had said that although Himalayan glaciers "are indeed receding and the rate is cause for great concern, the forecast that the glaciers could disappear by 2035 was not based on an iota of scientific evidence."