HIMANSH, India’s remote, high-altitude station opened in Himalaya

As part of the Indian government’s initiatives to better study and quantify the Himalayan glacier responses towards the climate change, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences has established a high altitude research station in Himalaya called HIMANSH (literally meaning, a slice of ice), situated above 13,500 ft (> 4000 m)at a remote region in Spiti, Himachal Pradesh.

The station was unveiled by Dr. M. Rajeevan, Secretary to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt of India, on Sunday 9^th October 2016, in presence of Dr. M. Ravichandran, Director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research.

Himalayan region has the largest concentration of glaciers outside the polar caps, and understanding the behaviour of these glaciers and their contribution to the sustainable supply of water for mankind and agriculture is one of the grand challenges of Indian scientific community. The ongoing initiatives by NCAOR would contribute to the integrated study the glaciers in the upper Indus basin (Chandra basin) in Himachal Pradesh and their contribution to discharge.

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