Shrinking Sapi Lake, a Major Concern for Villagers

The existence of people inhabited in the ranges of the Himalayas widely depends upon the glaciers for water. In fact, all living things from microorganisms to plants are dependent on Himalayan glaciers for their existence. Such a case is of Kanoor village where human beings, flora, and fauna are dependent on the receding Sapi lake, locally known as Sapi Tso.

These glaciers are formed by means of snow accumulation when the residue of monsoon traveled from the sea towards north India. It is witnessing for many decades that the snowfall in the Ladakh region gradually decreases which leads to less accumulation of snow to form glaciers.

The main impact of the shrinking of Himalayan glaciers is global warming which has been caused by the irresponsible activities carried out by human beings such as emission of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide by vehicles, and other means. All these activities will lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem and leading to existential crises of all leaving things in the biosphere. The energy demand is increasing with the growth of population which means a continuous increase in emissions of harmful gases in the atmosphere which leads to the rise of atmospheric temperature.

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It becomes a major challenge to everyone that how to preserve these glaciers. My native village Kanoor which lies around 18 km away from Kargil depends upon the water of the Sapi glacier. Many years earlier there was a wide lake along with the glacier, but as of now, the lake has been shrunk to its half within the last eight to ten years. This indicates how glaciers are shrinking at an alarming rate.

Further UT administration is going to make Sapi lake a tourist destination and as per the locals of Sapi village that a road is going to construct towards Sapi lake and the allotment for the work is awarded to the bidder. If the Sapi lake is provided easy access via motorable road to tourists, then the people residing down of the Sapi Lake will force to migrate due to shortage of water. In this crucial matter of concern, myself as a responsible human being urge local administration to stop construction of roads toward such glacier and take necessary action to revive these lifeline glaciers. At such a crucial stage, it becomes the duty of every individual to come forward to save the Himalayan glacier by using another alternative method of energy like replacing diesel operated machine with green energy which is pollution-free. At last, let’s make a resolution by every individual that from today that all of us will reduce the fossil fuel and use alternate green energy such as solar water heater, solar lighting, solar cooker, and hope so for electric vehicles.

1 Comments

  1. A very concerning matter about which ER ANAYAT ALI is talking about. The admistration must stop the road construction towards the Sapi Tso (glacier), in order to make sustain the glacier for more and more time.
    Any glacier in Ladakh in such a time of global warming is no need to make tourist destination.
    Hope the UT administration esp DC Kargil will tackle the matter as serious.
    Thank you
    A student from Kanoor Village

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