Glaciers are indicators of temperature changes, with their advances and retreats, bearing geological evidence of climatic change.
The glaciers have been receding over the past few decades, and lakes have formed on the surfaces and in the base of the mountains.
“The mountain used to be covered in snow,” said Lingzhi Gup, Wangdi, who was born and brought up in Lingzhi. Lingzhi is one of the remote dungkhags under Thimphu. It is officially four-day walk, up in the mountains, from the Thimphu town.
When he was young, Gup Wangdi says he never saw a single lake in the areas. “The ice, that used to cover the mountains, have melted and formed lakes.”
A local of Lingzhi, Kesang Dema said by this time of year, they used to get snowfall. She say these days, they have started to get late snowfall.” I think it is because of climate change. We also hear enormous sound from glaciers retreating.”
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The Chief Glaciologist with the Department of Geology and Mines, Karma said the clean types of glaciers, which are more sensitive to the impact of climate change, are receding at around 30to 35 meters annually.
“…we need to keep in mind that when we talk about retreat, retreat happens in various ways. Normal retreating is normal melting of the glaciers retreat. The other one is now because when a glacier retreats, the water body is left in a frontal part which ultimately results in a so called glacier lake”
The Department of Hydro-met Services are doing all they can to lower the risks in case of flash floods and other disaster, such as setting up of early warning system.
The Project Engineer under the Department of Hydro-met services, Sangay Tenzin, said the manual early warning system which was set up in 2000 has been replaced. “…through the funding of UNDP glacier fund, we started to set up Early warning sophisticated equipment.”
Sangay Tenzin said maintenance of the sophisticated equipment in an area about 5,000 metres above sea level is quite a challenge.
