On Himalayan peaks, the human footprint has endangered a fragile ecology
Rising out of the pristine Himalayas like a towering monument, Mount Everest, the dream destination of many a seasoned climber, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this summer.
Dangerous overcrowding – there were as many as 891 summits this year – is aggravating the ecological fragility of the mountains, especially when the Katmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development has warned of a calamitous disappearance of a third or more of Himalayan glaciers by 2100.
In freewheeling communication with me, former UN Environment Director and an eminent expert on climate change issues, Svein Tveitdal, expressed deep concern at pollution-induced snowmelt in the Himalayas. The Third Pole as it is popularly called, has ice fields containing the largest reserve of fresh water outside the polar regions. But even radical climate change action will not be able to save the glaciers that feed 2 billion people in the Indian subcontinent.
Tveitdal’s unease over environmental havoc caused by the commercialization of climbing expeditions should be taken seriously because the Himalayan mountainous region, right from Afghanistan to the borders of Myanmar, has recorded a rise of two degrees Fahrenheit in air temperature since the beginning of the 20th century. Worse still, the temperature in the Himalayas is warming up faster than the rest of the world. As Arctic Greenland’s enormous ice sheet also melts at an accelerated pace, (which might leave the North Pole completely ice-free by the middle of the century), and with Antarctic ice-loss overtaking the Arctic simultaneously, Tveitdal foresees an apocalypse.
With glaciers retreating steadily and erratic weather patterns, there is a strange indifference among climbers on the issue of global warming, which affects them directly
Seema Sengupta
“The three poles are fast reaching tipping-point, which will trigger a catastrophe that mankind has never witnessed before,” Tveitdal said, with the utmost frankness. He has previously served as a polar adviser to the executive director of the UN environment program.
With permafrost, including those perennially frozen for centuries thawing in the upper reaches of the Himalayas, with glaciers retreating steadily and erratic weather patterns, there is a strange indifference among climbers on the issue of global warming, which affects them directly.
Ganesh Shah, Nepal’s former environment minister and a renowned environmental activist himself, candidly acknowledged to me that overcrowding in Everest is getting worse. However, he does not feel that the situation has yet reached an level where it could cause a gigantic ecological disaster.
For him, the overcrowding issue comes only during the climbing season which is barely two months in a year, and which he called “manageable.” He went on to add that the real problem were weather conditions, which defied all prediction, and often led to backlogs and congestion at the summit.
Against this backdrop, the role of mountaineering bodies, both national and international, becomes crucial in protecting the sensitive Himalayan ecosystem and to preserve the interests of the mountains and climbers simultaneously.
Bringing together all stakeholders under one umbrella, including climbers’ forum, insurance industry, adventure travel companies, local law and order agencies and the Sherpa community may not be an easy task, but the challenge has to be accepted nevertheless. Nepal’s premier mountaineering body, Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) is already assisting the national government in developing a sustainable tourism policy that encompasses environmental protection and climate change adaption, especially when the country is aiming to open-up more peaks for expeditions in the days ahead.
Kul Bahadur Gurung, general secretary of the NMA, took great pains to explain to me how the association has been working tirelessly to preserve the sensitive mountain ecosystem and to empower communities dependent on it, by way of awareness training, garbage management, humanitarian support and skilled human capital production.
It is my belief that with the Himalayas now facing the gravest environmental degradation and posing a threat to mountaineers in the process, a grassroots-led effort will be more nimble, as balancing biodiversity conservation and community livelihoods is a major challenge.
Experts like Shah bat for a scientifically driven capacity calculation to determine the number of climbers who should be allowed on the peak at any given time, and whose success hinges on precise weather monitoring and forecast. He also advocates a “polluters pay” rule and apart from a hike in the number of expedition liaison officers to strengthen safety oversight, Shah favors strict regulatory guidelines because they rarely show up for work.
As Himalayan glacial shrinkage drives far-reaching changes downstream, the ex-Nepalese environment minister has called for aggressive collaborative efforts – at the scientific and political level – among South Asian nations. It is imperative to act now, because short-lived climate pollutants emitted from air pollution in the Indian plains are getting deposited in the Himalayas, which in turn is triggering a dangerous glacial-melting.
