New Delhi, Sept 1: The volume of glacial lakes worldwide has increased by about 50 per cent since 1990 as glaciers melt and retreat due to climate change, show 30 years of NASA satellite data.

Lake Imja, a glacier lake near Mount Everest in the Himalaya has grown to three times its length since 1990, the research showed.

The findings, published in the journal ‘Nature Climate Change’, can aid researchers assessing the potential hazards to communities downstream of these often unstable lakes and help improve the accuracy of sea level rise estimates.

“We have known that not all meltwater is making it into the oceans immediately,” said lead author Dan Shugar of the University of Calgary in Canada. “But until now there were no data to estimate how much was being stored in lakes or groundwater.”

The study estimates current glacial lake volumes total about 156 cubic kilometres of water.

The international team of researchers initially planned to use satellite imaging and other remote-sensing data to study two dozen glacial lakes in High Mountain Asia, the geographic region that includes the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain ranges, including the Himalaya.

The team ultimately analysed more than 2,50,000 scenes from the Landsat satellite missions, a joint NASA/US Geological Survey programme. The team looked at the data in five time-steps beginning with 1990 to examine all the glaciated regions of the world except Antarctica and analyse how glacial lakes changed over that period.

Glacial lakes are not stable like the lakes in which most people are used to swimming or boating because they are often dammed by ice or glacial sediment called a moraine, which is composed of loose rock and debris that is pushed to the front and sides of glaciers. Rather, they can be quite unstable and can burst their banks or dams, causing massive floods downstream.

These kinds of floods from glacial lakes, known as glacial lake outburst floods, have been responsible for thousands of deaths over the past century, as well as the destruction of villages, infrastructure, and livestock. A glacial lake outburst flood affected the Hunza Valley in Pakistan in May 2020.

“This is an issue for many parts of the world where people live downstream from these hazardous lakes, mostly in the Andes and in places like Bhutan and Nepal, where these floods can be devastating,” Shugar said.

Riyaz Bhat
Srinagar, Aug 31: Terming the recent decision of Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) as ‘unfair and discriminatory’, the aspiring candidates of annual and bi-annual private examinations of 10th and 12th standard Tuesday demanded authorities to take combined decision for the students.
Earlier on Monday, the JKBOSE stated that it has devised a mechanism to promote the aspiring candidates of annual and bi-annual private examinations of Class 10th and 12th, who have already passed two or more subjects.
However, the students said the mechanism devised by the BOSE to promote the candidates who have already passed two or more subjects to higher class have left the other students at Gods’ mercy.
One of the students told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that he couldn’t study well last year due to his bad health conditions, thus couldn’t qualify the regular exams. The 10th standard student said, “I have never failed in any subject till 9th standard even though I used to be one of the toppers of my class. However, last year, I was suffering from Typhoid and couldn’t study and prepare well for the exams.”
Now, the BOSE has promoted those who couldn’t qualify the exams in two or more subjects and left the failed ones and those who couldn’t appear in the exams at God’s mercy, which is a sheer injustice to the students.
The BOSE should either promote all the students or should conduct the exams of all private candidates to do the justice. (KNO)

Beijing, Aug 31: India and China accused each other Monday of military provocation on their Himalayan border where a deadly showdown erupted in June — even as commanders from the two sides held talks aimed at easing tensions.

China’s military claimed Indian troops had crossed the border Monday near Pangong Tso, a lake at 4,200 metres (13,500 feet), and engaged in “open provocation and caused the border situation to become tense”.

“The Chinese military is taking necessary countermeasures,” the People’s Liberation Army’s regional command said in a statement.

Earlier Monday India said Chinese troops had “carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo” in the eastern Ladakh region over the weekend.

Military commanders from the two sides held talks Monday in a new bid to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, who fought a border war in 1962 and have staged regular high altitude clashes since.

China did not confirm Saturday’s incident, but the foreign ministry said its troops have “always strictly respected” the unofficial border known as the Line of Actual Control.

On June 15, troops from the two sides fought hand-to-hand combat in Ladakh in which 20 Indian troops were killed. China acknowledged casualties but did not give figures.

The two sides blame each other for recent clashes and the two armies have since poured tens of thousands of troops into the region. Military and diplomatic talks are at an apparent stalemate.

Massive troop buildup –

Pangong Tso is one of several hotspots where troops have massed since June.

“Indian troops pre-empted this PLA activity on the southern bank of Pangong Tso lake, undertook measures to strengthen our positions and thwart Chinese intentions to unilaterally change facts on ground,” said the Indian defence ministry.

Senior officers met at a border post near the scene of the standoff on Monday, it added.

According to military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, Indian troops pushed back Chinese troops who crossed the Line of Control.

“PLA soldiers walked into our area near the south bank of Pangong, but our soldiers were prepared and quickly pushed them back without any violence,” said one source.

“They tried to come in again several hours later but we stood firm. There has been no such confrontation in this area in the past.”

China’s foreign ministry said Chinese troops “have always strictly respected the Line of Actual Control and never crossed the line”.

“Border troops from both sides have maintained communication over issues on the ground,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a press briefing.

Amid calls for boycotts of Chinese goods, India has stepped up economic pressure on China since the June battle and repeatedly warned that relations would suffer unless its troops pull back.

India has banned at least 49 Chinese owned-apps — including the TikTok video platform — frozen Chinese firms out of contracts and held up Chinese goods at customs posts.

China has complained about the action and warned that Indian consumers will suffer. (NDTV)