Trudging down the Leh bazaar, Ishay Tundup, an elderly farmer, holds up a bag full of green vegetables. An ordinary sight surely but it was far from that. This 70-year-old man had grown vegetables all his life. He had never needed to buy them from a bazaar. Tundup is one of the many farmers who suffered the effects of drought in Ladakh last summer, a phenomenon unheard of.

Amsterdam: The head of the UN scientific body on climate change defended on Friday the work of the thousands of scientists who contribute to its reports, even as he welcomed a review of procedures that produced errors undermining the panel

The expert group formed by the Prime Minister to assess the actual condition of Himalayan glaciers has submitted its report to the Prime Minister. The report was submitted by the expert group headed by IIT Mumbai Professor Anand Patwardhan.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest hinted that water flow in the Indian rivers especially Brahmaputra and Ganga rivers were at risk because of shrinkage of glaciers in Tibet.

The Uttarakhand capital is likely to get a specialised institute of glaciology, a first of its kind in the country.

The study group on Himalayan Glaciers, constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has recommended establishment of a nodal institution for glaciology that could act as a repository of the currently available data with different knowledge institutions in the country.

KOCHI: Contrary to the findings of the Union Environment Ministry, the Himalayan glaciers are retreating at a rapid rate, environmental activist and scientist Vandana Shiva has said.