Warming a threat to natural wonders: WWF

[gaurav1987]

Source- TOI

Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, and Himalayan glaciers are eleven of the world's greatest natural wonders that face destruction if the climate continues to warm at the current rate.

Other wonders of nature at risk are the Amazonian rain forests and Australia's Great Barrier Reef, says World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in its latest report titled 'Saving the World's Natural Wonders from Climate Change'.

Released ahead of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC's) Second Working Group Report, the WWF report says most of these wonders have already suffered irreversible damage from climate change.

The Himalayas, it says, are threatened due to melting glaciers which are receding at an average rate of 10 to 15 metres per year.

Himalayas or the 'Water Towers of Asia' feed seven of Asia's great rivers, including the Ganga, and a meltdown could trigger floods initially and droughts in the future. In the Sunderbans, both man and animal face a threat from rise in sea levels.

A 10-year study in and around the Bay of Bengal has already revealed that the sea is rising at 3.14mm a year in the Sunderbans against a global average of 2mm.

Made up of hundreds of islands and criss-crossed by narrow water channels and home to India's dwindling tiger population, the problems are immediate for Sunderbans, says Anurag Danda, co-ordinator of WWF's Sunderbans programme.

"Oceanographers have estimated that 15% of the landmass will be lost by 2020 and this will have a devastating impact on both tigers and humans," he says.

The WWF report says it will be too late for these natural treasures unless drastic action is taken by governments. "Adaptation to climate change can help to some extent but cutting emissions of greenhouse gases has to be top priority," says Ravi Singh, CEO of WWF-India