Snow At Record Lows, Glaciers Vanishing In India's Scenic Rohtang Pass

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Shimla - The snow has almost melted away in Himachal Pradesh’s Rohtang Pass this year much earlier than usual. Environmentalists say this is due to overcrowding and exhaust fumes of vehicles at the scenic tourist site. The 3,915-metre-high Himalayan pass in the Kullu valley, some 55 km from the resort town of Manali, has never seen so little snow in early June.

Locals say the heavy winter and spring snow lasts well into July every year. However this year the rapidly melting snow has disappointed hundreds of holidaymakers who throng the pass from nearby Manali, 280 km from Shimla.

Until a few years ago the Border Roads Organisation would clear the heaps of accumulated winter snow in June. However, due to less snowfall in the last five years, the pass has started to open in May. This year, the pass was thrown open to vehicular traffic May 5. But with the snow melting fast, the number of visitors is bound to fall in the coming months, say people connected with the tourism trade.

Environmentalists maintain that the heavy tourist traffic and exhaust fumes are responsible for damaging the fragile ecosystem around the pass, an important spot on the itinerary of tourists visiting Kullu valley. The temperature on the Rohtang Pass has gone up by at least a degree in the last three decades, hastening the melting of glaciers around the pass, said J.C. Kunihal, a scientist at the Govind Ballabh Pant Environment Institute, Kullu.

EDIT

http://indiaenews.com/2006-06/10973-vanishing-rohtang.htm