A report published by UNESCO has warned that Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal would be badly destroyed due to climate change and human interference in the days to come.
The recently released report “Case Studies on Climate Change and World Heritage” has included Sagarmatha National Park as one of the 26 examples of forests and UNESO world heritage sites around the world that would be destroyed by the climate change.
The UN body is worried that the melting of glaciers around the world is affecting the appearance of sites inscribed for their outstanding beauty and destroying the habitat of rare wildlife species such as the snow leopard in the Sagarmatha National Park.
“Since the mid-1970s, the average air temperature rose by 1 °C in the Himalayan region, i.e. almost twice as fast as the global average warming of 0.6 °C reported by the IPCC, this trend being most pronounced at high altitude sites.5 And almost 67 percent of the glaciers in the Himalayan and Tienshan mountain ranges have retreated in the past decade – by as much as 30 m per year for the Gangotri glacier,” the report said.
The report further said, “Rapid melting of glaciers is already increasing the magnitude and frequency of catastrophic floods downstream. The continued melting will eventually affect the availability of life. The melting season of snow coincides with the rainy season in the Himalayas. Consequently, any intensification of rainfall is likely to contribute to the rapid disappearance of snow and ice.”
Floods of the melted ice called Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) have disastrous consequences for the population and for the biodiversity of the entire watershed. GLOFs are a natural phenomenon in the Khumbu region. In the last two decades, three major GLOF events were recorded in the Khumbu region. In 1977 GLOF from the base of Mount Amadablam destroyed park facilities and a tourist lodge located along the riverbeds.
A second GLOF in August 1985 from Digtso Lake completely destroyed the Namche Hydropower Station, trails, bridges, and washed away the cultivated land, houses, and livestock killing at least 20 people along its 90 km downstream impact zone.
The most recent GLOF in the eastern part of the Sagarmatha National Park occurred on September 3, 1998, in the Hinku Valley. Today, the Imja Lake in the park is identified as one of the largest and most threatening lakes needing urgent monitoring and risk assessment and preparedness.
The report has suggested for management of the glacier lakes with measures undertaken to control the Tsho Rolpa in the western part of the park.