CHHOTA SHIGRI CLIMATE STATION

INDIAN MOUNTAINEERING FOUNDATION

Indian Mountaineering Foundation in its Golden Jubilee year has decided to set up a high altitude climate station to collect time-series on temperature, radiation, humidity, wind speed, rainfall and snow fall on round the year basis. The mountaineering fraternity is deeply concerned about the unprecedented degradation of bio-geophysical environment in the high altitude valleys having glaciers by global warming and human intervention. Twenty first century priorities of the IMF is to face the challenges posed by the global warming which are adversely affecting the high altitude ecosystems of the Himalaya.

IMF selected Chhota Shigri glacier as a site to undertake a long-term study on glacier downwsting and climate variability in the Lahul-Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh. Chhota Sigri is easily approachable and have attributes acceptable to the International Association on Cryospheric Sciences for banchmark glacier. During 2002 UNESCO sponsored a mass balance training program on this glacier for capacity building for the south Asian glaciologists. The World Glacier Monitoring Services (Zurich) has also identified it as a index or benchmark glacier for long-term monitoring in the Indian Himalaya.

Chairman of IMF scientific committee Professor Syed Iqbal Hasnain, along with AVM (Rtd.) Puran Routela and Dr. Shresth Tayal, members visited Lahu-Spiti valley between June 23 and June 29 to install Automatic Weather station in the vicinity of benchmark glacier. The Davis weather station was installed on June 27, 2008 at the north bank of River Chandra, across Chhota Shigri glacier in the compound of Chhota Dara HPWD Dak Bunglow at the elevation of 3780 m( 32⁰ 17’ N: 77⁰ 31’ E).The weather station has inbuilt provision to store data sets for six months. The data sets could be bought from IMF on CD by all national institutions, universities and NGO’s engaged on climate change studies in the Indian Himalaya.