Himalayan
region has the largest concentration of glaciers outside the polar caps, as
this region is aptly called the “Water Tower of Asia” is the source of the 10 major river systems that provide irrigation,
power and drinking water for over 700 million people live in India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh– nearly 10% of the world’s population.
Understanding the
behaviour of these glaciers and their contribution to the sustainable supply of
water for mankind and agriculture is one of the grand challenges of Indian
scientific community.
As
part of the Indian government’s initiatives to better study and quantify the
Himalayan glacier responses towards the climate change, National Centre for
Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences
has established a high altitude
research station in Himalaya called HIMANSH (literally meaning, a slice of
ice), situated above 13,500 feet (> 4000 metres) at a remote region in Spiti,
Himachal Pradesh.
The
station was unveiled by Dr. M. Rajeevan, Secretary to the Ministry of Earth
Sciences, Govt of India, on Sunday 9th October 2016, in presence of
Dr. M. Ravichandran, Director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean
Research
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