By IANS
New Delhi : Refuting Pakistan's claim, India Friday said deployment of troops in the Siachen glacier and continuous human traffic did not have any major environmental effect on the region.
"In proportion to the vastness of the Siachen glacier, these activities have very negligible effect on its melting," Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena told the Rajya Sabha.
"The observations made by Pakistan's environment minister are not based on factual data."
Meena said media reports from Pakistan sometimes refer to environmental benefits of the demilitarisation of the area, but no proposal as such had been received from Islamabad regarding environmental aspects of Siachen glacier.
As per the information made available by the Geological Survey of India, the total retreat of Siachen glacier during the past 95 years till 2004) was about 500 metres at an average annual rate of 5.3 metres per year.
Meena said the Geological Survey of India has undertaken studies on the recession of several Himalayan glaciers, including Siachen.
"These studies revealed that the majority of glaciers of Himalayan region are passing through a phase of recession, as has been the case with the glaciers located in other parts of the world," he said.
"The rate of recession in Himalayan region in different climatic zones was found to be variable in different years. This variation in recession can be attributed to several climatic factors."