Direction (): Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.
Only 29 per cent of the water in the Ganga is from glaciers till the river reaches Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh; the rest comes from the springs. This shows the centrality of Himalayan springs in maintaining the flow of the mountain’s rivers. The mountain range is home to 3 million of India’s 5 million springs. Things, however, have changed quite rapidly in the past few decades.
About 50 per cent of the springs have dried up or turned seasonal. Drying up of springs is intricately linked to desertification because nearly every river in India has its origins in springs. Any change in spring hydrology has clear ramifications on river hydrology, whether in the headwater regions, where springs manifest themselves as sources of rivers or in the lower-reach plains of river systems where they contribute almost invisibly as base flows to river channels.
In fact, the ramifications of disappearing springs have already become visible on rivers. A decade ago, the flow of Binsar river was so strong that it would wash away bridges. Now sometimes its water level goes as low as 15 cm. The number of streams in Almora has gone down to just 60 from 360 in the past 150 years.
The drying up of springs is a major worry because they were the only source of water to 50 million people in 60,000 villages of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Assam and West Bengal. About 60 per cent of people in rural regions of the Himalayas still use stream water for drinking. With nearly a fifth of the Himalayan population involved in agriculture and 64 per cent of the cultivable land irrigated by streams, _____(A)_____ will have a substantial impact on farmers too.
The Himalayan springs are drying up primarily due to changes in land use, ecological degradation and the so-called developmental activities. These have depleted aquifers in the mountains. Scientists link it to climate change and say that the total rainfall in the Himalayas has decreased in the past century while winter rain has almost disappeared.
The drying up of springs has also impacted forests and wildlife. Many natural watering holes for wildlife are in the form of springs and seeps. Depletion has led to water insecurity inside forests and national parks and on their fringes as well. These springs ensure widespread water availability in rivers and provide moisture to the soil. Their disappearance will eventually be felt in the plains.