Up in Himalayas, glaciologist yet to know of Time honour

However, the distinction has come as a pleasant surprise for the institute which is celebrating its 23rd Foundation Day on Tuesday. The news was conveyed to Dr Dobhal’s wife Anjana on Monday night by a former student now settled in the US. For the past 12 years, Dobhal has been collecting scientific data on the Dhokriani glacier and Chaurabari glacier to study whether global warming was indeed responsible for the receding Himalayan glaciers. Spending more than five months a year on the glaciers, collecting data and studying various others factors, Dobhal was responsible for setting up two permanent automatic weather stations on these two glaciers.

“The phenomenon of the receding glaciers has attracted the attention of the entire world. Dobhal, with his unique method of using bamboo sticks to measure the thickness of the glaciers, has helped collect valuable scientific data from the Himalayan region,” said Prof B R Arora.

However, Dr Ram Krishna Mazari, head of the Geomorphology and Environment-Geology at the Wadia Institute, under whom Dr Dobhal works, was not all that pessimistic about the receding glaciers. “This is in inter-glacial warm period in earth’s long history. There were times in history when sizes of glaciers increased,” Dr Mazari said. Even Prof Arora dismissed the apprehensions that Himalayan rivers would go dry in next few decades.

In the absence of Dr Dobhal, his wife Anjana was honoured at the Foundation Day celebrations on Tuesday. Anjana later said: “It is a wonderful feeling to be honoured for the hard work done by my husband.”