Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, back from a US tour where he carried a piece of ice from a glacier in Ladakh to flag how fast they are melting, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that India should take the lead in addressing climate change.

He warned that the Ganga and the Yamuna would become seasonal rivers if glaciers were not restored. Wangchuk cautioned that the next Mahakumbh might have to be organised on the “sandy remains of sacred rivers” as they might dry up if the glaciers were not preserved. He also appealed for immediate steps to check the migration of people from the Himalayan region because of climate change.

“As we all know the glaciers of the Himalayas are melting very fast and if this and the accompanying deforestation continue at current rates then in a few decades our sacred rivers like Ganga, Brahmaputra and Indus might become seasonal rivers. This may also mean that the next Mahakumbh might only happen on the sandy remains of the sacred rivers,” Wangchuk wrote.

Wangchuk stressed that India should take the lead in mitigating the ill effects of climate change as the Himalayas have the third-largest deposit of ice and snow on Earth after the Arctic and Antarctica.

“India needs to take a lead in glacier preservation as we have the Himalayas, and our sacred rivers such as the Ganga and the Yamuna come out of them,” Wangchuk wrote.

In a media conference, the climate activist underscored the gravity of the situation in the Himalayas.

Ladakh glacier

Suggesting measures like setting up a commission and declaring major glaciers like the Gangotri and the Yamunotri national treasures, he urged the government to frame special policies to protect the Himalayan glaciers, a source of the perennial rivers.

He explained how climate change in the Himalayas is affecting the lives of inhabitants, giving the example of people migrating from Kumik village in Ladakh’s Zanskar region because of water scarcity.

“Now, only a few villagers have been forced to leave their places of residence because of climate change. It is not a major issue as of now but we must begin initiating steps towards mitigating it,” he said, highlighting the increase in flash floods and cloudbursts.

Wangchuk, who has been working on preserving Himalayan glaciers, travelled from Ladakh to Delhi and then to the US with a piece of ice from a glacier in Khardung La. The ice was placed in a container wrapped in Ladakh’s iconic Pashmina wool for insulation.

Wangchuk displayed the ice at the UN office in Delhi before flying to the US where he showed it at the Harvard Kennedy School, MIT in Boston and the UN headquarters in New York.

He immersed the ice at the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers in New York on February 21, a month ahead of the World Day for Glaciers on March 21.

The UN has declared 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation.