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This book provides detailed information on the Northwestern Himalayas in India. The scientific data compiled in the book is based on more than two decades of field and laboratory studies by the authors. The Ladakh region is a well-known cold desert with unique geological and climatic setting. The influence of Westerlies in the region has played significant role in the Ladakh region to behave much differently than rest of the Himalaya. The "Karakorum Anomaly" has been a key factor in negating the effect of global climate change in this region of Himalaya. The scientific discussion of some major glaciers of the region, as case study, are also discussed in this book. The uniqueness of the region with respect to climate shall be elaborated with the help of case studies.
List of contents
Chapter 1 Introduction.- Chapter 2 Geological Settings .- Chapter 3 Climate and Its Variation.- Chapter 4 Glacier Geometry and Dynamic .- Chapter 5 Glacier Morphology and geomorphology of features .- Chapter 6 Palaeo-geographic Reconstruction.- Chapter 7 Impact of climate on Agriculture: Ladakh, Zanskar and Kinnaur.- Chapter 8 Cold Desert and Desertification of Zanskar valley (Kargil).- Chapter 9 Climate Change, Population characteristics, Human Habitation and Culture in High Himalaya.- Bibliography.
About the author
The book shall be authored jointly by Prof. M.N. Koul and Prof. R.K. Ganjoo (both retired). Both have worked on the glaciers of NW India (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh) for 25 years. The emphasis of the research work was to understand the changes in the health of NW Himalayan glaciers with respect to the change in climate. The research was predominantly based on field investigations corroborated with application of remote sensing and GIS. The authors have published several papers in national/ international journals with high impact factors on the research studies of Himalayan glaciers. The research studies received funds from national funding agencies, e.g. Department of Science & Technology and Space Applications Centre. The authors will try to sum up the research output of about ten research projects in the form of the proposed book.
