GLOBAL WARMING, IMJA TSHO AND KHUMBU VALLEY

Swelling Imja lake puts Khumbu region in peril

Imja Tsho, Khumbu

Imja, a fast-swelling glacial lake, is putting the entire Khumbu region in peril. The region,a popular destination for mountaineers from all over the world, will be swept awayif the lake bursts.Due to global warming, snow of the Himalayan region is melting faster and water is accumulating in southern valleys. Small piles of snow, hardly spotted in the 1960s, are melting and turning into big glacial lakes. Imja is one such lake.The Everest region is one of the hotspots of glacial melting in the Nepal Himalayas. Out of 20 potentially dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal, 12 lie in this region. A study conducted recently by the United Nations Environment Progamme (UNEP) and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) states that Imja is the fastest-retreating glacier in the entire Himalayas.Spotted as a group of small masses of snow in 1962, Imja has now turned into a one-square-kilometre lake.“Imja is expanding at an alarming rate. It is growing by 74 metres a year,” says Basanta Shrestha, division head of the IKM-MENTRIS section of the ICIMOD.“We ought to see how the lake is swelling and inform people about it,” he says.To keep an eye on fast-swelling Imja, the ICIMOD has installed a pair of video cameras by the lake. These cameras take pictures of the lake every 10 minutes. Lake’s rising level is recorded on a website through wireless internet and satellite.“After a year-long experiment, we have begun monitoring the lake through remote sensing. Now we can at least see what is happening there and make locals aware of any impending tragedy on time,” he says.“The formation of glacier lakes and many other changes in the region may or may not be due to global warming, but we need to have some scientific database to predict possible accidents,” Shrestha maintains.

source: the himalayan times

Encorachment in Sagarmatha National Park

Kathmandu, February 26:
The Sagarmatha National Park, a UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) world heritage site, which also houses the Mt Everest, is now ruined by encroachment for haphazard commercialisation.Two resorts — Kong Dey View Resort and Farak-pa Village Resort that are being constructed in the national park area — were constructed in controversial circumstances.The locals claim that the hotels are built on encroahed public land and are damaging the cultural and national landscape of the world heritage site.“We are more than shocked to know that two grand hotels are being constructed in core area of Sagarmatha National Park. This is going to damage the nature and value of the national park,” said Sonam Gyalzen Sherpa, chairman of the Buffer Zone Management Committee of the park.He said the locals had been very conscious about the conservation issues for thousands of years but since the people from other areas have migrated to the sacred village for commercial purposes, the tradition to conserve nature has been destroyed.According to the officials at Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, the Environment Impact Assessment for both the projects were passed in November and December, 2004, when Bachaspati Devkota was the environment minister.On the other hand, assistant management officer at Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, Surya Bahadur Pandey admitted that it was the result of the government’s mismanagement.He said the two resorts came up at Sagarmatha as a result of government’s mismanagement and the local people’s tendency to encroach upon public land.“It would not have been like that had the local people been aware of the public land and its significance,” he said.He added that many other big hotels there have violated the norms.A UNESCO official said the UNESCO had also tried to raise the issue and had asked the DNPWC several times about the authenticity of the hotel but the government officials were found skeptical on this issue.

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