Even after all its sincere efforts to protect one of the world’s top 10 biodiversity hotspots, Bhutan may have to pay a high price for the sins of others! If you are one of those contributing towards global warming-triggering activities in their own bits, then you are one of the culprits.
Yes, global warming is taking its toll on Bhutan’s ecosystem even after the farmers of the land are following the region’s strict conservation policies. With forests covering nearly three quarters of its land, Bhutan has to sacrifice a lot for maintaining it, but it is the rest of the world, which is not doing justice with it. The disappointed Agriculture Minister Sangay Ngedup also thinks on the same lines.
Scientists fear that the land is most threatened by what is called ‘Glacial Lake Outburst Floods,’ occurring from the recede of the Himalayan glaciers. Nicholas Rosellini, resident representative of the United Nations Development Program siad,
You get what is almost a mountain tsunami, which can wipe out anything in its path.
It was in 1994 itself, one of those lakes burst its banks in Bhutan, unleashing a deluge of floodwater. It besides claiming 17 lives in the central Punakha valley, has also swept away homes, bridges and crops that cost not only the environment, but huge economic investment to get things into place.
With Bhutan’s glaciers retreating at 20 to 30 meters a year, the wall that separates the two lakes in central Bhutan could burst as early as 2010! And in its course, it can unleash 53 million cubic meters of water.
Since, this is twice the volume of the 1994 outburst, you can well predict the devastation it may cause, even after its government all its sincere bits to preserve its pristine environment.
Photo: nationalzoo.si.edu