Climate Change Issue in Uttarakhand :

Climate change issues are of global concern all over the world but pose major challenge over mountain environment as mountain ecosystem is highly vulnerable and sensitive to the climatic variations. Mountains cover close to 20 percent of the Earth's surface, providing a home to approximately one-tenth of the global human population. With their steep and varied topography, and distinct altitudinal ecological zones, mountains support a high diversity of species and ecosystems and a large percentage of global endemic species.

Mountainous areas throughout the world provide essential resources such as timber, minerals, recreational escapes, and a significant portion of the freshwater consumed by humans. They are rich sites for cultural diversity. Mountains have a special role in showing the effects of climate change. The Himalayan ecosystem has 51 million people who practice hill agriculture and whose vulnerability is expected to increase on account of climate change.

 The recent IPCC( Intergovernmentl Panel on Climate Change) reports warns that mountain ecosystem is much more susceptible to the vagaries of climate change than the other regions of earth and poses serious challenge to the people of mountain regions in dealing with this global threat for sustaining their economic and social development. The state of Uttarakhand, which forms a part of the Northwestern Himalaya, is environmentally fragile and ecologically vulnerable.

The fragile ecology of the mountain state coupled with large variations in physio-climatic conditions has rendered it vulnerable to vagaries of climate. The incidence of cloudbursts in the last few years has baffled both the meteorologist and the common man equally. Notwithstanding, continuous efforts made by the Government to cope with such hazards through relief and rehabilitation measures, the recurrence of uncertainties continue to inflict widespread harm and damage to human life as well as property. The roads that are the state’s lifeline are repeatedly damaged, blocked or washed away by one or the other acts of nature.

The Snow and glaciers which are considered to be best indicators of changing climate have been affected by the rising temperature throughout the Himalayan belt. It has been observed that the estimates on the magnitude of glacial retreat and their impact on natural resources have been varying considerably. However the impact of climate change and rising temperature has been noticed even by a common man in far flung parts of the Himalayan eco system. Depletion of small glacierets in the Himachal Himalaya which were providing the sustained discharge to many rivulets for irrigation to agriculture fields and sustaining the water resources in downstream areas has been reported by the villagers.

Current Scenario :

• Rise in temperature in the NW Himalayan region by about 1.60C in the last century.
• Warming rate of Himalyan state was higher than Leh & Sringar during the period from 1991-2002 as compared to the earlier decades and the gross rise in the mean air temperature during 1980-2002 periods in north western Himalayas as a whole was about 2.20C.
• Climate change and precipitation variation in the NW Himalaya based on precipitation data from 1866-2006, no change in winter precipitation was observed but significant decreasing trend in the monsoon precipitation was captured.
• About 17% decrease in rainfall in Uttarakhand was observed from 1996-2000 onwards till 2007.
• The decreasing trend in seasonal snowfall at higher hills is very conspicuous since 1990 and it was lowest in 2009 and even non seasonal snowfall became very frequent.
• Last five years (2007-2012) were the warmest for all the districts, where Nainital, Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar districts witnessed the maximum rise. Temperature rising slope remained steeper during the last decade. From 1911 to 1950, temperature frequency curve shows a normal cycle of warming and cooling, during 1950-1980 it was warmer than earlier yet warming was not significant, and after 1980, the curve became steep.
• The population of light demanding species like Dalbergia sisoo and Acacia nilotica in sub tropical areas will decline on account of non-availability of adequate light during winter and prevalence of cold waves at the time of new leaves emergence.
• The proportion of climax species-Quercus will decrease and that of conifers will increase. 
• Jadipani — was once popular as the Mussoorie-Chamba fruit belt is facing a tough challenge. The famous apple crop has been hit hard due to climate change. Other crops, such as vegetables mostly grown for personal consumption, have also taken a hit.

                 Uttarakhand, a vital segment of the Himalayan Regime, is most vulnerable to climate mediated risks. The economy as a whole is characterized by low economic growth combined with high rates of population growth. The livelihoods are almost totally based on natural resources - water, forest, agriculture, etc. About three-fourth of state’s population is rural and virtually all depend on agriculture. Tourism and Animal husbandry are other sources of income. With over 15 important rivers and over a dozen of major glaciers, Uttarakhand is a valuable freshwater reserve. A large portion of the state is under forests.

Climate change may have severe impacts on livelihoods as most of the economic and livelihood sectors are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Several studies have documented a notable temperature rise over the region, especially in the mountainous areas, and attribute recent natural catastrophes and extreme weather events like receding glaciers and upwardly moving snowline, depleting natural resources, erratic rainfall, irregular winter rains, advancing cropping seasons, fluctuations in the flowering behaviour of plants, shifting of cultivation zones of apple and other crops, reduction in snow in winter, increasing intensity and frequency of flash floods, drying up of perennial streams, etc.  and occurance of natural hazards emanating from the effects of climatologically variations are a matter of immediate concern to the state, as every year the state experiences the fury of nature in various forms-like cloudburst, flash floods, landslides, snow avalanches droughts etc.