Environment Minister slams IPCC claim on glacier melt down

New Delhi, Jan 19 (ANI): Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh termed the claims of the Nobel Prize winning, United Nations Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, as alarmist. He said the IPCC report was not based on scientific evidence.

"There is no doubt that most of our Himalayan glaciers are in a poor condition. We need to pay more attention to our glaciers. But to say that in another 20 to 25 years all our glaciers of over 10000 years would melt down is alarmist and misplaced," Ramesh said on Monday.

"The study of glaciers, especially the Himalayan glaciers was made on unscientific evidence," he added.

As head of the IPCC, noted environmentalist Rajendra Kumar Pachauri had said the world's glaciers were melting fast and added that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035.

New evidence suggests that the IPCC may have been mistaken.

The IPCC's claim has been derived from a 1999 scientific journal, which relied on an estimate provided leading Indian glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain. (ANI)