New Delhi: Terming the Environment
Ministry`s recent report on non-receding of Himalayan glaciers
as false complacency, a research foundation on ecology today
claimed the findings were misleading.
Navdanya, a research foundation for science technology
and ecology which has conducted many participatory research on
impacts of climate change, claimed that people are witnessing
a serious change in their natural environment.
"The Government of India, by reducing the complex
phenomena of climate change and attributing the receding of
glaciers to merely an increase of temperature, is misleading
its people.
"The government`s stand on climate change in the
Himalayas is anti-nature, anti-people and anti-science and
they are failing at the national level," claimed Vandana
Shiva, founder of Navdanya.
She said arguments put up by the government on
Himalayan glaciers are totally unscientific.
She claimed the survey conducted by Navdanya pointed
out that Uttarakhand had witnessed an unpredictable drought
and heavy rainfall between 2006-09, which indicates a shift in
climatic condition.
The thickness of the Siachen has retreated by 8-10
metres since 1995 and similarly the Gangotri glaciers are
retreating at the rate of 4cm per day, it said.
The research also mentioned of the increasing scarcity
of water resources due to drying up of seasonal springs and
the forest fire in Garhwal region this year as a clear sign of
climate change.
Bureau Report
