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In May 2008 I decided to explore theGangotri region in Uttaranchal. Alongwith 10 other members we left Pune and

via Delhi reached Rishikesh which is the

base town.From Rishikesh we took the early morningbus to Yamunotri the starting point of riverYamunotri. There is only one governmentbus to this place so it was very critical for usto get 11 seats. We stayed at a place called

 Janaki Chhati and the 6km trek toYamunotri started at six in the morning. Theroad along the river Yamunotri is beautifulwith a valley stream to your right andmountains to your left. After reachingYamunotri at 8:30 we took a bath in anatural hot water stream. The sulphur water

was almost boiling and we couldn't stand itfor more than 15 minutes. From Yamunotriwe descended to Uttarkashi and halted toprepare for the actual trek.

Our partners Crystal Adventures had doneall the preparations for the expedition. Wereached Gangotri and guess what? Theeffects of global warming came in our way!The local authorities restricted our stay atTapovan and we had to cancel our trek toVasukital. The river Ganga which isworshiped at the Gangotri travels 18km fromGomukh to reach this place and we were to

walk right up to Gomukh. It was a mindblowing experience. Gomukh is the start of river Ganga which is also called asBhagirathi, named after the King Bhagirathwho worshipped lord Shiva and broughtGanga to earth.

One of the largest glaciers in the Himalayas,Gangotri, originates at 7,100 metres abovesea level and descends to a height of 4,000meters, covering around 143 squarekilometers in northern and eastern India. Itsestimated volume is 27.75 cubic kilometers.In the last 13 years, the glacial channel

feeding the Ganga river has shifted 20 metersand has now changed track and the volumeof water too is shrinking rapidly. Similarly,many parts of the ridge formed by rocks and

debris over centuries have completelydisappeared.

The natural side walls have been subjectedto heavy erosion and geologists fear that at

the rapid rate the recession is taking placethe glacier will be left without any supportand will therefore disintegrate very soon indifferent directions. The reasons for thiserosion and recession are many. Scientistssay that global warming, increasingpopulation and mass scale deforestation aresome of the main reasons leading to therecession in the glacial flow of the Gangotri.

In the past some of the great Himalayanglaciers have either disappeared or haveeroded considerably. In the Saraswati valley,north of Badrinath, the transverse glacier

Ratakona lies very near to the Mana passand is on the verge of drying up due todeforestation. In the Dhauli Ganga valleythis glacier has totally disappeared. Similarly,the Pindari and Milan glaciers are alsogradually receding.

"If there is recession and melting largely dueto global warming, there is also a reductionin the amount of snowfall that the areareceives annually due to deforestation. Letus hope that nature strikes a balance andglacial activity resumes over the next fewdecades," says an expert.

This is the effect of global warming andnature lovers and trekkers like me are thelosers as the total number of trekkers toGomukh is restricted to only150 per day.This is really sad as the Gomukh, Tapovan,Nandanvan area is like a heaven. And it isnot only a matter of the majestic scenicbeauty. People actually do tapas (meditate)in the Tapovan (Tapo bhumi). How long canwe expect those mornings to last, when onecan actually see the glittering mountainpeaks of Mt Shivling and Mt Meru?

— Ganesh Inamdar(Heating)

 Troublein

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Paradise

T

G

his is the effect ofglobal warming andnature lovers and

trekkers like me arethe losers as thetotal number of

trekkers to omukhis restricted to only 

per day. 150

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There s a bar in New York calledTwinsburg where the owners,

bartenders and waitresses are iden-ticaltwins. What a terrific fun idea for a themebar! It is the kind of place where you seedouble even before you've had your firstdrink! T his set me off thinking about otherinnovative ideas that I have encounteredover the years and which have left adefinite impression on me.

Let's start with the spare button that hasbecome standard

practicewhen you buy a new shirt

or a pair of trousers. Like the sparewheel in your car, this button comes in

handy when you have a 9'olock meetingto attend and you want to wear yourfavourite blue shirt that has a button missing.If this sounds too trivial to you just think of the spare button as a small gesture of customer care from the manufacturer!

On a bigger scale there are two socialinnovations that R D Aga was fond of citing.Gandhiji's idea of satyagraha as aninstrument of political change and the white

revolution movement of milk cooperativeson the Anand pattern both highly inno-vative and authentically Indian. A nd if Imay add two more uniquely Indian socialinnovations to the list they would be theNavdanya movement started by VandanaShiva to protect the nine crops t hatrepresent India's collective source of foodsecurity by starting seed banks in variousparts of the country. And second, the Sulabhpublic toilets which have mushroomed allover India because of one NGO's tirelesscrusade.

Innovation sometimes happens becausesomeone breaks a leg i n this case thesomeone w as an erstwhile CEO of 3M.

The story goes that William McKnight oncebroke his leg and was forced to wear a heavyand bulky plaster cast. He wondered aloudwhether his company's scientists coulddevelop something less barbaric a ndthey did. They developed the lightweightand stronger fiberglass-reinforcedsynthetic casting tape S cotchcastwhich hardens completely in a fewminutes, while plaster casts can takeup to a day. Today, Scotchcastmaterial is the standardorthopaedic casting

materialin the West. And

 yes, it comes in variousattractive colours and has earned

3M millions of dollars over the years.Wheels onluggage have made life easier for millions of travellers. Big dialing buttons on phones are

very user-friendly, especially for the aged withpoor eyesight and arthritic fingers. Reflectivepaint used in road signage is a simple idea

with big benefits of motoring informationand safety. Sometimes the Gordian knot has

an Alexandrian solution. That is, if you can'tunravel an intractable problem just slicethough it! The Japanese gave the world theconcept of just in time manufacturing whichrevolutionised the economics and efficiencyof the shopfloor. On the bizarre side, theyhave also innovated t he square water-melon which stacks neatly in departmentstore shelves and fits more snugly in shop-ping bags! On the more useful side, there'sthe Chinese umbrella with two buttons t oopen and close. And if you see the currentcrop of ads on condoms, they are inducingcouples with many innovative features.

Everyone has their own favourite i nno-vative ideas. I asked a colleague on thesecond floor what was her favourite? She

Itsomet meshelps itobrea   a leg.k

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