During the recent general elections, India spent a lot of time deciding what path it would take in the next five years. Would we concentrate on globalisation or on egalitarianism? Arguments were heated; some even intelligent. But what bothered me is that no political party spoke about the environment – the single most important thing for the future of a civilization which has developed on the banks of some of India’s great rivers and especially the Ganges. If India continues on its path of destruction, then we are looking at losing our glaciers in the next 20-30 years, and at the mother river becoming a seasonal stream.

It was on a trip to Sikkim last year with a team of the Glacial Commission of Sikkim that I discovered this first hand. A five-day trek took us to the height of 16,000 feet. It was the first ever trip of this glacial commission in that state assess the damage to the glaciers. The chief glaciologist traveling with us, S I Hasnain, painted a very bleak picture for us. The glacier had receded many kilometres when the present location was matched with Indian survey maps of the 1960s’.

But this damage is not restricted to Sikkim alone. I later went on a trip to Gaumukh and Tapovan, and the bad news continued. The reality is that we are losing our glaciers, and we need to find out why.

How have we reached here?
One of the biggest impacts of the industrial revolution has been the increased need for energy. Unfortunately for planet Earth, clean sources of energy are very expensive, and cheap ones polluting. The most popular fuel for electricity production in India has been coal. Carbon content in coal varies from 60 to 80 per cent, and carbon is the single biggest element that causes pollution. Carbon dioxide(CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH2) are not only major pollutants, but also the biggest greenhouse gases.

Those who don’t have access to electricity from state boards use gensets, a big cause of smog. Thousands and thousands of new vehicles are added to the roads every single day. Private cars have turned into a major environmental burden.

This heavy pollution has caused a huge ‘brown cloud’ to be formed over large parts of the Indian sub-continent. The Asian Brown Cloud is a layer of air pollution which appears over the sub-continent during the winter months when there is no rain to wash the smoke away.

A recent study has shown a direct co-relation between brown cloud and glacier melt. If we continue our excessive ways of using heavy pollutants in our atmosphere then we are looking at a bleak picture.

Climate change
Climate change has already played havoc with Indian farmers, who have lost their almost perfectly designed weather pattern. On my journey last year, I met many farmers in Vidarbha who lost their expensive seeds because of a rainfall delayed only by a few days. Those of us who live in cities might not feel the impact of a delayed monsoon season. But for farmers who entirely depend on that rain for sustenance it is a matter of putting food on the table, or years of debt. So every year, hundreds of farmers commit suicide to save themselves from the shame of being in debt. To us who live in the cities it all boils down to how much change we have in our pocket. Low crop output means inflation and that hits the poor the most.

But how long can we insulate ourselves from the impact? Temperatures will continue to rise, more than ever before, and our lives will be impacted directly. The cycle of nature is a slow one and any trend can take decades to reverse or even stop.

Impact is here and happening now
With crops being destroyed at the frequency we see now, India from being self sufficient in foods will have to start importing billions of dollars worth of food. Importing food would have a catastrophic effect on the Indian economy. The impact will not just be on the farmers but also on the urban work force, reversing the growth trend that we see today.

Water is getting more and more scarce. If you ever pass by Delhi’s urban slums early in the morning, you will see that men, women and children line up for hours to get water from government provided tankers. The tankers arrive at their own sweet will and people clamour, jumping on top of each other to get their daily fix, a bucket a day. If lucky, two. The poor of India live in sub-human conditions due to this water scarcity. A necessity for us like running water is a luxury for them.

In coastal areas, the sea level is continuing to rise, it is estimated that it will rise by three feet before the end of the century. Small villages have already begun to vanish. The Sunderbans has lost many of its villages; people are being forced to move to higher ground thereby putting even more pressure on the already pushed land resources.

The reason for the rise in sea levels is the high rate of melting of glaciers in the mountains. This is forcing people in the mountains to shift as well.
Global warming is not just about temperatures increasing or glaciers melting. It is about a changing society. It is about already overburdened resources getting depleted. Maybe society will, as well.

Rohit Gandhi is an international television journalist and documentary filmmaker. He is currently making the sequel to ‘On Thin Ice,’ part of his series of short films on climate change.

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