By – Aditi Gupta
Because many of India’s major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, originate in Tibet, researchers suggest that nearby countries like India may also be impacted by a rising amount of lakes and melting glaciers.
Many of the lakes in Tibet’s beautiful Himalayan area may fill to the brim with billions of tons of water due to climate change and heavier precipitation brought on by melting glaciers. In a study report, a group of scientists across the world made this allegation. The research states that China could face substantial financial losses as a result of this. Some lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may see a surface area growth of more than 50% by the end of the century. It has been estimated that the lakes on the plateau would hold more than 600 billion tons of water.
The study claims that even in the case of low emissions, our results indicate that by 2100, the water level will rise by roughly 10 meters (32 feet) and the surface area of the endorheic lakes on the Tibetan Plateau will increase by more than 50%, or roughly 20,000 square km or 7,722 square miles, in contrast to 2020. Endorheic lakes are ones that hold onto water and do not empty, consequently they are always full of water.
This is anticipated to be four times more than the rise in water storage in the region over the 50 years prior, according to scientists from China, Wales, Saudi Arabia, America, and France. In accordance to the study, ten thousand square kilometers of environment, comprising farmland, wetlands, and grasslands, as well as a road stretching more than a thousand kilometers will be drowned if nothing is done to address this crisis.
Because many of India’s major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, originate in Tibet, researchers suggest that nearby countries like India may also be impacted by the increasing amount of lakes and melting glaciers. It is said that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the “Water Tower of Asia.” With over a thousand lakes and a huge water storage in the form of ice and water, it is the highest plateau in the world.