Santa was reading a report about receding glaciers in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand.
“Banta, look at this!”
“The glaciers are melting so fast, they are forming massive lakes.”
“Santa says, more lakes mean more places for a high-altitude swim!”
“Climate change is just nature’s way of building us more swimming pools.”
Banta sighed, pulling out a map.
“Santa-ji, those aren’t ‘swimming pools.’”
“Those are ‘Giant Bathtubs‘ perched thousands of feet above our heads.”
“And thanks to climate change, those bathtubs are getting fuller and their walls—made of loose ice and rock—are getting weaker.”
“So?” Santa asked.
“They are way up there.”
“We are way down here.”
“What’s the worry?”
“The worry is the ‘Vibration‘,” Banta said.
“Imagine you are sitting in a bathtub filled to the very brim.”
“Now, imagine someone gives the tub a violent shake.”
“What happens?”
“The water splashes out and messes up the bathroom floor!” Santa answered.
“Now, scale that up,” Banta said grimly.
“An earthquake in the Himalayas can act like that ‘shake.’”
“It can cause a part of a mountain to fall into the lake, or simply crack the weak walls of the glacial lake.”
“This triggers a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood”.
“Because climate change has made these lakes larger and more unstable, a moderate earthquake that wouldn’t have done much damage before can now drown entire valleys downstream.”
Santa’s eyes went wide.
“So the earthquake breaks the ‘bathtub,’ and climate change is the one who filled it to the point of bursting?”
“Exactly,” Banta said.
“We can’t just plan for ‘shaking.’ we have to plan for ‘drowning‘ immediately after the shaking.”
“Our Early Warning Systems for earthquakes must now be linked to the monitoring of these glacial lakes.”
“If we ignore the ‘Met process‘ while planning for the ‘Tectonic process,’ we are literally treading water.”
संता – बंता की इस जुगलबन्दी से आज हमने क्या सीखा:-
- बहु-खतरा निगरानी (Multi-hazard monitoring) प्रणाली की स्थापना आवश्यक है और उच्च हिमालयी क्षेत्र में भूकंपीय सेंसरों को हिमनदीय झीलों से उत्पन्न बाढ़ (GLOF) पूर्व चेतावनी प्रणालियों के साथ एकीकृत किया जाना चाहिए / Multi-hazard monitoring is essential. Seismic sensors must be integrated with GLOF early warning systems in high-altitude regions.
- निचले इलाकों में रहने वाले समुदायों के पास ऐसी निकासी योजनाएँ होनी चाहिए जो भूकंपीय गतिविधि के बाद सम्भावित त्वरित बाढ़ (water surge) को ध्यान में रखें / Downstream communities must have evacuation plans that account for water surges following seismic activity.
संता – बंता की यह जुगलबन्दी आपको कैसी लगी, कृपया हमें जरुर बताये
व
इस जुगलबन्दी को बेहतर बनाने के लिये अपने सुझाव अवश्य दें।
हमें हमेशा की तरह आपके सुझावों, प्रतिक्रियाओं व कटाक्षो का बेसब्री से इंतजार रहता हैं औरसच मानिये इसी के आधार पर हम अपने आप में, अपनी सोच व रचनात्मकता में सुधार करने कोप्रेरित होते हैं।
सो अच्छा – बुरा जैसा आपको महसूस हुवा हो, कमेंट जरुर करते रहें।
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