Climate change and human intervention adding layer of vulnerability to fragile Himalayas, say experts

Several key roads are currently blocked due to landslides triggered by heavy rain in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the northeast New Delhi: Climate change and ill-planned human interventions in the Himalayas have accentuated the vulnerability of the hills to disasters, resulting in a manifold increase in loss of property and human lives, experts say. Several key roads are currently blocked due to landslides triggered by heavy rain in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the northeast. The glacier burst can be attributed to climate change but the “criminal negligence” of governments and project proponents turned it into a disaster, Dhyani said. A report released by the Ministry of Earth Sciences in 2020 said the annual mean surface-air-temperature in the Hindu Kush Himalayas increased at a rate of about 0.1 degree Celsius per decade during 19012014, with a faster rate of warming of about 0.2 degree Celsius per decade during 19512014, which is attributable to anthropogenic climate change.