Shailendra Yashwant - Swelling glacial lake threatens Sikkim’s heritage village
“Mosquitos and
tourists!” Chokdup Lachenpa shouts at no one in particular as he takes a long
sip of Tongba (hot beer) from his bamboo mug. As if on cue, the children
chorus, “The first is because of climate change and the second is the cause of
climate change,” causing much mirth and laughter among the customers.
We are sitting at
Chokdup’s daughter’s tiny teashop-cum-bar in Lachen, a small village perched
2,750 metres above the mean sea level on the right bank of the Lachen Chu river
in North Sikkim. Outside, in the foggy twilight, across the Himalayas, we can
see the headlights of a cavalcade of vans and jeeps that will soon bring
hundreds of tourists to Lachen for a night’s halt.
Image credit: Shailendra Yashwant
Situated on a grassy
mountain slope, surrounded by snow-capped peaks and forests of rhododendrons
and conifers, Lachen is so beautiful it has been declared a “heritage village”
by the Sikkim government. And that is its problem. The tag is accompanied by
“eco-tourism homestays” pushed strongly by bureaucrats. It is the last stop
for tourists going to Gurudongmar Lake, 5,430 metres above MSL. Buddhists and
Sikhs consider the lake sacred. Now, tourists from Maharashtra and Gujarat seem
to be competing with the peripatetic Bengalis to make Lachen the number one
tourist attraction in North Sikkim.
Feeling the heat
What most of the
tourists won’t know is that Lachen valley is facing a massive climate crisis.
Behind those welcoming smiles, the Lachenpas – the local residents, an
indigenous tribe of the Bhutia community – are a worried lot. Reduced snowfall,
unseasonal rains and the forest fires of last summer have made them all very
anxious.
To make matters worse
and potentially dangerous, Lachen is in the path of the streams flowing down
from the growing Lake Shako Cho. The lake at the snout of the glacier by the
same name is growing because the glacier is melting faster. It is identified to
be at high risk of causing a glacial lake outburst flood, a type of flood that
occurs when the gravel holding in such a lake collapses... Read more:
http://scroll.in/article/812436/swelling-glacial-lake-threatens-sikkims-heritage-village