Recently, a massive forest fire ravaged through the forests of seven districts in Uttarakhand. Though the fire was tamed within a few days, its adverse effects have now started emerging. The pristine Himalayan glaciers have bore the brunt of the inferno and have started melting rapidly. The amount of carbon in Himalayan glaciers has increased by two and a half folds since the fire broke out!
According to Dr. DP Doval, a former glacier scientist at the Wadia Institute, glaciers have now become increasingly vulnerable to carbon due to air pollution. When these carbon particles get heated they stick to the glacier layer increasing the rate of glacial melting. This is because black particles are excellent absorb the sun’s rays rapidly and they start heating up and melting when present at the upper layer of the glaciers.
It must be mentioned that forest fires continued to burn in seven districts of Uttarakhand for about 22 days. In Uttarakhand, approximately 1450 hectares of forests were torched, which can be seen at the Rishi Ganga Cat of Chamoli.
