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Amalava Bhattacharyya ¹, Parminder Singh Ranhotra ¹, Santosh K. Shah ¹

Affiliations
1 Birbal Sahni lnstitute of Palaeobotany, 53, University Road, Lucknow, IN

Abstract

A review of the published records of Late Pleistocene-Holocene climate of the western Hlmalaya reveals that though the Ladakh area in the Trans-Himalayan region has been expenencing an and climate for more than 40 ka B P it was relatively less and during the last glacial period when compared to the Holocene conditions Within the last glacial and phase there were several short, warm and moist events (interstadials)around 30, 21, 18 375, 16 and 10 ka B P Many of them have been recognized from the Greater and outer Himalaya also Data for the Holocene from the Ladakh and other Trans-Himalayan sites are almost lacking The clrmate of the Greater and outer Himalaya was warm-morst during most of the Holocene, whlch was Interrupted by short phases of colder and drier climate around 8 3-7 3 ka B P, 6˜ ˜3 ka B P and 850 years B P Contemporaneous paleoclimate records From Peninsular India also indicate relatively dry conditions for the last glacial period and comparatively warm-moist conditions for a major part of the Holocene The interstadial phases within the last glacial period in the Trans-Himalayan region might have coincided with the enhanced Western disturbance/northeast monsoon in the Indian subcontinent.

Keywords

Palynology, Palaeoclimate, Western Himalaya, Monsoon, Western disturbance, Spatio-Temporal climate change.

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Parminder Singh Ranhotra ¹, Amalava Bhattacharyya ¹

Affiliations
1 Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow - 226 007, IN

Abstract

Present study is an attempt to understand the tree line shift in relation to glacier fluctuations during Holocene based on the exploratory palynological studies from a 1.3 m deep sediment profile located at 3,100 meters above mean sea level (mamsl), Rukti valley, Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh. The study reveals that during the early to middle Holocene, tree line taxa viz. Betula and Juniperus were well characterized in the site of investigation evident by higher percentage of their pollen grains in subsurface sediments than those recorded during the late Holocene. This variation in distribution of these taxa suggests that till middle Holocene tree line was close to the study site (3,100 mamsl) i.e. at lower altitude than its present day distribution between 3,800 to 3,900 mamsl. Accordingly, the glacier snout might also be at lower elevations (∼3,500 mamsl) than its present day location at altitude (∼4,300 mamsl).

Keywords

Palynology, Palaeoclimate, Holocene, Glacier Extent, Baspa Valley, Himachal Pradesh.

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Veeru Kant Singh ¹, Anju Saxena ¹, Poonam Verma ¹, Parminder Singh Ranhotra ¹, Deepa Agnihotri ¹, Jyoti Srivastava ¹, M. C. Manoj ¹, Md. Firoze Quamar ¹

Affiliations
1 Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226 007, IN

Abstract

The India International Science Festival (IISF) 2015 organized recently signifies a collective effort towards nurturing scientific temper at the global level. The aim behind organizing this festival was to provide a platform to thousands of young researchers and students across the nation and other neighbouring countries for discussing scientific ideas and innovations on issues of global relevance. The event was inaugurated by Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology, and Earth Sciences.

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