| Sanction Date: | 11.01.2024 | |||
| Project Category | SG | |||
| Year | 2023-2024 | |||
| Project Duration | 3 Years | |||
| BTA : | Water Resource Management | |||
| Project Site/ State/ Districts/ Villages Covered: |
Indian Himalayan Region (Few Locations in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh) |
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| Organization/ Implementation Agency: |
Nagaland University, Nagaland Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi North East Regional Centre, NIHE, Arunachal Pradesh |
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| Project Partners: | S.No. | Name | ||
| 1. | Director (State Remote Sensing App. Centre) & Climate Change Cell, DST, Sikkim | |||
| Lead Proponent: | Dr. Manasi Debnath |
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| Project Brief Description: | Due to climate change and related extreme events, there is a huge loss to ecosystem services in mountainous regions. Due to this, human lives and infrastructure are affected, and many species lose their habitats. They are forced to move to new areas and adapt to a new environment, making their survival challenging and difficult. The impact of climate change on the glaciers, glacial lakes, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF), other higher altitudinal lakes (HAL) and adjacent ecosystems from the East to West stretches of the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) remains poorly quantified. GLOF causes a considerable loss to ecosystem services, such as loss of vegetation and biodiversity, siltation in rivers affecting water quality, and soil and nutrient losses caused by water erosion on agricultural lands. As an effect, the living conditions of several tens of thousands of people residing downstream in the higher reaches of IHR deteriorated. The dynamic nature of the cryosphere and its impact on the HAL has implications not only for water security across India's international border but also for physicochemical properties of lake water and adjacent biodiversity sustenance, developmental activities in this sensitive and fragile IHR, and necessitates the initiation for an integrated research effort. Therefore, the proposed research would integrate various physical and chemical parameters of selected HALs, their dynamic studies, and surrounding ecosystem studies from east to west of the IHR. Geomorphological records of landforms and sediment assemblages explicitly provide previous glacier and lake area dynamicity and event reconstruction. The present HAL area-water depth analysis by bathymetric survey notably signifies the health of lakes and further projects the future potential of GLOF. The geochemical analysis of lake water as per the area depth will further enhance the knowledge of the lake's health. Assessing biodiversity in and around high-altitude lake ecosystems is crucial for understanding and conserving these unique and fragile ecosystems under the present climatic and anthropogenic continuum. In addition, the perception of people staying in the downstream areas needs to be analysed. Their perception of climate change, snow-cover change, water availability within the catchment, previous anonymous changes in stream discharge and livelihood changes could be helpful for future disaster risk analysis within these dynamic but sensitive environments. This proposed research will focus on the HAL dynamics from East to West IHR during the last half century by investigating the peripheral ecosystem sensitivity analysis. The selected HALs for detailed research are from Arunachal Pradesh (Sangetsar Lake/ Madhuri Lake), Sikkim (Gurudongmar), Uttarakhand (Kedar Tal), Himachal Pradesh (Chandra Tal) and Ladakh (Tso Kar). The project will aim at developing strategies and policy formulation for reducing the impacts of future extreme events of GLOF due to the changing climate. | |||
| Beneficiaries/ Stakeholders: |
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| Activity Chart | Click Here | |||
| Total Grants (in Rs.) | Rs. 49,40,000 (Rupees: forty nine lakh forty thousand only) | |||
| 1st Installment (in Rs.) : | Rs. 25,00,200 (Rupees: Twenty five lakh two hundred only) | |||
| Project Objectives | Quantifiable Deliverables | Monitoring Indicators |
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• To provide a near-precise higher-altitude lake inventory, classification in the Changme Khangpu Basin entirely (CKB), and assess the benchmark Tenbawa lake area dynamics in Sikkim Himalaya for the past half a century, and annually respectively. • To quantify the lake volume using the bathymetric survey and assess the geomorphological landscapes for stability analysis of the Tenbawa Khangse lake. • To quantify and assess the potentiality of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) from Tenbawa Lake. • To quantify the Holocene climate dynamics in relation to water resource assessment, and assess the risk and vulnerability of select high-altitude lake ecosystems related to climate change. • Identify knowledge gaps in conserving High-Altitude Lake (HAL) • Quantify the role of HAL in biological assemblage. • Assessing ecosystem services offered by the high-altitude lakes in the Lachung Valley of the Sikkim Himalaya. |
• Baseline databases covering the dynamicity, health status, future trend and hazard-risk assessment initiated from the specific HALs. • Site specific best measures to protect HAL’s ecological health. • Key indicators for monitoring future lake associated hazards. • Research publications including journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings and policy briefs. • SOP for planning the construction activities and developmental architecture downstream. |
• New database built upon Baseline, inclusive of evidential parameters and analytical inferences. • No. of site-specific best measures for protection of HAL’s ecological health • Standard Operating Procedures developed (SOPs) (No.) • New monitoring Indicators developed for HAL ecological status • Knowledge Products (No.) • Beneficiaries (No.) |
| S.No. | Name (Sanctioned) | Grant under Professoional Services |
| 1. | 01 JPF | @ Rs. 20,000/- pm + 9% HRA |
| 2. | 01 SPF | @Rs. 23000/- pm + 9% HRA |
| S.No. | Name of Equipment (Sanctioned) | Cost (in INR) |
| 1. | Workstation 2 Nos @ Rs.300000/-, Discharge Rader data logger 1 Nos @ 300000/-, GPS stand alone mobile mapper 1 Nos,@ 100000/- Motorized Kayak Boat 1 Nos @ 100000/- Digital Echo Sounder 1 Nos @Rs.500000/-, Pocket Concrete Penetrometer 1 Nos @ Rs.20000/-, Camera 1 Nos.@ Rs.50000/- | 13,70,000/- |
