Calling for a complete demilitarisation of the Siachen Glacier, speakers at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) seminar argued that it was melting fast due to heavy military presence and activities, global warming and black carbon as other contributing factors. They called for the preservation of glacier by turning it into a peace park for better bilateral relations and to focus on more vital issues of chronic poverty and under development in south Asia.
The experts were speaking at a seminar titled ‘Climate Change and Siachen Glacier: A Global Challenge’ organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Monday. Chairing the session, Government of Pakistan Climate Affairs Advisor Dr Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry deliberated on the climate change impact on glaciers and said scientific studies reveal that eastern glaciers are melting more rapidly than glaciers in the western regions.
He stated that the average temperature in the northern areas has increased by 0.76 C with an increase in the frequency of heat waves that had adversely affected the environment in the region. He added that the Siachen glacier is under stress from factors such as global warming, black carbon and human military interventions.
He also talked of trans-boundary pollution which results in heavy deposits of carbon on glaciated ice, triggering the temperature to rise, due to more absorption of solar radiation.
SDPI Water and Energy Advisor Arshad H Abbasi, an expert on glaciers, said the rise in temperature at the Siachen glacier is the direct result of large scale military interventions.
He said forces have used chemicals to melt and cut through the age-old glacial ice to construct bunkers, camps, helipads and airfields.
He rejected the notion that global warming is melting Siachen glacier and cited a NASA report titled ‘Advancing Glaciers and Positive Mass Anomaly in the Karakoram Himalaya’, which states that more than 65 percent of glaciers in the Karakoram are growing. “If the adjoining glaciers are gaining further mass, then it is a case of direct human interference that is melting Siachen,” he added. He said the recent tragedy in the Gayari sector is caused by a ‘glacier surge’.
He elaborated that rising temperature melted the base of the glacier, reducing the frictional resistance and transferred large volumes of ice on the Pakistan’s Army camp.
SDPI Climate Change Study Center Senior Research Associate Shakeel Ahmad Ramay concluded that the prevalence of black carbon content is one of the major reasons behind Siachen glacier’s rapid melting.
He said the presence of Pak-India militaries and their different activities involve heavy omissions of black carbon which has strong correlation with the depleting glaciers including occurrences of incidents such as Ghayari.
During the question-answer session, participants raised questions related to the scientists’ access to the Siachen glacier and its related information for research purposes, the role of the Indian and Pakistani militaries in the limited access of scientists to glaciers, the melting of the glacier and occurrences of heavy floods in 2010 and 2011, changing patterns of monsoon and prospects of the survival of victims of the Ghayari incident.