Lichen biomonitoring, a valuable proxy for interpreting climate change phenomenon in Himalayas: exploring causes for glacier lake outburst flood in Kedarnath region

Abstract

The devastating flood arising due to lake outburst flood in Kedarnath region of Uttarakhand (16- 17th June 2013) is the witness of nature’s fury and unprecedented changes in the climatic condition at regional as well as global level. Apart from geological and climatic factors, localize factors such as excessive practice of mass tourism, vehicular movement, human activity in high altitude ecosensitive areas have been held responsible for increasing of temperature and destruction of glaciers. Cloudbursts are mainly trigger by regional topography that lead to the lifting of moistureladen winds and forming of a cumulonimbus cloud, associated with thunderstorm and heavy precipitation. Cloudbursts are common in the western Himalaya which may be attributed to disturbed ecological condition of Western Himalayas because of high anthropogenic pressure and local warming (Das 2015). A number of studies are available on monsoon cycling, western disturbance, aerosol movement and fine carbon soot to understand the cause of flash flood.