Abstract ID: 3.5700 | Accepted as Talk | Talk | TBA | TBA

“When I was a boy, in 1970s, the tail of our Gang Singe Glacier was at Bonbong that has now receded about 1.5 kilometers, if it continues, I fear we will end up having no glacier source for water upstream,” says Akhon Hassan (67 yrs) of Chunda. An interesting comment made by Mr. Bashir (65 yrs) of Kuru: “Our grandfathers grafted a glacier but interestingly it was a male glacier only. It spurts here and there, lifts boulders but does not give water, probably we need to graft another (female) glacier”, so after marriage it can give water for our needs. These kinds of ethnographic accounts and narratives based on the personal observations, experiences and inferences of local communities living in the neighborhood of glaciers for decades have deeper meanings and implications to understand climate change. If such statements are analyzed and decoded, workable local and indigenous solutions can be found that would be sustainable, eco-friendly and cost effective in nature. The drive of Ice-Reservoirs making by University of Baltistan is based on such indigenous insights. Other than Glacier Grafting, Ice-Towering and Avalanche Harvesting techniques, I have successfully experimented to grow irrigation scale ice-reservoirs in Baltistan. This paper presents an overview of these case studies.