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The National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee under the Centre for Cryosphere and Climate Change Studies has started working on multiple Indian Himalayan glaciers such as Gangotri, Triloki and Milam to analyse the changes and their impacts on melt runoff.
This was stated in the affidavit filed by the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti (water resources) March 7, 2025 before the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The ministry replied in an affidavit November 15, 2024, mentioning the project report on snow and glacier changes and their impacts on melt runoff in Himalayan basins prepared by NIH on March 2022.
The concluding part of the report talked about the amplified hydrological impacts under higher emissions, with intensified rainfall events and accelerated glacier retreat, driving future water availability. The report emphasised the urgent need for climate mitigation to prevent severe reductions in snow cover and to manage the increasing variability in water resources.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports elaborated on the effect of temperature increase and glacier retreats in the Indian Himalayan basins. The study titled Snow and glacier changes and their impacts on melt runoff in Himalayan basin was conducted for research purpose for analysing the climate change impacts on the Himalayan basin and to test the applicability of spatial process in hydrology (SPHY) model for separating the different runoff components.
River Baspa is a major tributary of River Satlej and 18-20 per cent of its basin is covered by glaciers and permanent layers of snow. So, the basin was selected to analyse the effect of snow and glacier changes and their impacts on melt runoff components. The glaciers showed a noticeable change in area in the Baspa basin.
The findings of the study showed that the contribution from glacier melt runoff has redudced, while snow melt contribution has increased in the past years due to changes in glacier and snow covers in the Baspa basin. In this study, the SPHY model was explicitly tested to separate the snowmelt and glacier melt runoff contributions from the total runoff.
The Punjab Mandi Board was making every effort to adhere to the NGT guidelines and manage vegetable waste from the Ludhiana vegetable market in accordance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, as mentioned in the report submitted by the board.
The report of January 2025 was uploaded to the NGT website March 13, 2025.
The Punjab Mandi Board, vide letter dated January 9, 2024, submitted its response to the Punjab Pollution Control Board, detailing the actions taken by the market committee, Ludhiana.
With respect to waste disposal, an agreement was entered into for installation of a compactor at the new vegetable market, Ludhiana for disposal of waste. The board has provided land to the municipal corporation, Ludhiana for instalment of compactor, the work for which has been started by the corporation and the building is almost ready.
As per an agreement, market committee, Ludhiana will provide segregated waste to the compactor site and the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana will dispose of the waste as per the solid waste management rules.
Regarding cleaning and garbage collection, the responsible contractor gathers the trash at a specified location in the evening after cleaning the market. The garbage is then removed at night to avoid causing inconvenience to the public in the morning.
The contractor is obliged to dispose of the garbage away from the vegetable market. There is no dumping site near the colonies adjoining the vegetable market. The estimated volume of waste in the vegetable market is around 10,182.6 cubic metres, which corresponds to about 2,050 trolleys of waste.
Action has also been taken by the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana in collaboration with the staff of the market committee for imposing the ban on plastic bags, including fining violators. The Punjab Mandi Board is running a pilot project for construction of bricks from mandi waste and upon its success, will be implemented in Ludhiana.