Ladakh's shrinking Tso Kar Lake to be revived with 320 million litres of untapped glacier water daily

Having successfully channelised 90 million litres of Stok Glacier water into Igoo-Phey and Chuchot village canals to irrigate parched land near Leh, Lt Governor VK Saxena has now taken up a larger project of channelising another glacier stream – Rupsho Kharnak in Changthang District – to revive and rejuvenate the dying Tso Kar Lake, at a high altitude of nearly 15,000 feet. The project envisages channelising an average of 132 cusecs or 320 million litres of untapped glacier water per day, from the Rupsho Kharnak stream to the Tso Kar Lake, which has drastically reduced by almost 70% in the last one decade. Incidentally, this entire volume of untapped water, at present, goes to waste into the Sindhu River. Tso Kar, one of the most iconic glacial lakes in Ladakh which was originally spread over nearly 11,000 acres, has now reduced to just 3200 acres. Consequently, the lake which was once a thriving habitat of migratory birds and the famed Black-Necked Crane, is also rapidly vanishing, with only a small number of birds arriving at the site now. https://ift.tt/hmsCaDf