[caption id="attachment_54080" align="alignnone" width="900"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2b09c7e80680e07baf9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="501"/> Panoramic view of Manang Village and the Gangapurna and Annapurna III Glaciers that have retreated dramatically since 1980. Photo: SolundirWhen Swiss geologist Toni Hagen arrived in Nepal, the Ranas were still ruling the country. Throughout the 1950s, Hagen traversed the country on foot from east to west, from north to south, examining rock strata to probe the orogenesis of the Himalaya.Along the way, he took thousands of photographs and film clips that remain a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/time-capsule-of-kathmandu/">valuable visual archive of a time</a> when Nepal was emerging from historical isolation. Today, the photographs are a treasure trove for climate researchers to measure the extent of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/human-face-of-a-himalayan-climate-crisis/">glacial retreat in the Himalaya</a>.[caption id="attachment_54105" align="alignleft" width="250"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2b39c7e80680e07bafajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="248"> Shalik Ram Sigdel, the Nepali scientist who conducted the study of melting glaciers and new forest cover in Manang.Repeat photography has allowed Nepali climate scientists like <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shalik_Sigdel" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shalik_Sigdel&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307732000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGLU7cCjeTpgUDbnMntpnJqDDySKg">Shalik Ram Sigdel</a> of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to plot the rapidity of Himalayan melting due to global warming in the past century.When Toni Hagen trekked through Manang in 1957, he climbed a slope above the village to take photographs of the northern flank of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-abcs-of-a-winter-trek-in-nepal/">the Annapurnas</a>. Even at that time, the Gangapurna Glacier was already debris-covered, meaning that it had lost most of its surface ice.But when Sigdel visited the area and compared it to more recent photographs, he found the glacier snout had receded 900m up the mountain, leaving a lake at its terminus bracketed by sharply defined lateral moraines. The Marsyangdi River has found a way around this feature.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2b49c7e80680e07bafbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1196" height="778"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2b79c7e80680e07bafcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="786">Toni Hagen’s photograph in 1957 of the debris-covered Gangapurna Glacier termius with a few supraglacial ponds, and the same view in 2010 by Nabin Baral showing the growing glacial lake and vegetation on the terminal moraine. Photos: Toni Hagen and Nabin Baral/<a href="http://thethirdpole.net/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://thethirdpole.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307733000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH20EkAK7tiS1QEO-2v8kjshrdqFw">thethirdpole.net</a><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2ba9c7e80680e07bafdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1199" height="768"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2bc9c7e80680e07bafejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1199" height="797">Before-and-after photographs by Nabin Baral from Manang village of the Gangapurna Glacier and the glacial lake in 2007 and 2018 showing the dramatic retreat of the glacier and increased forest cover on the slopes. Photos: Nabin Baral/<a href="http://thethirdpole.net/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://thethirdpole.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307733000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH20EkAK7tiS1QEO-2v8kjshrdqFw">thethirdpole.net</a>In a paper titled Retreating Glacier and Advancing Forest Over the Past 200 Years in Central Himalayas published on last week in the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JG005751" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JG005751&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307732000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH_R19ErZEJGj-6qI6IxagxD87Z8w">Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences</a>, Sigdel with co-authors <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored=Muhammad%2C+Sher" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored%3DMuhammad%252C%2BSher&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307732000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFez6UmtBUzucmh0dOKYcsDUeIvWA">Sher Muhammad</a> of ICIMOD, <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored=Zhang%2C+Hui" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored%3DZhang%252C%2BHui&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307732000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFRmO-B5dlg03-1zEr0mvuMYO6YYA">Hui Zhang</a>, <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored=Zhu%2C+Haifeng" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored%3DZhu%252C%2BHaifeng&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307733000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH8qC5kAyRJfSST0IRACWK8reH1mw">Haifeng Zhu</a> and <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored=Liang%2C+Eryuan" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?ContribAuthorStored%3DLiang%252C%2BEryuan&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1599194307733000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEHCDgbGGXh_niT1k2YRRv-DKelwA">Eryuan Liang</a> present data on the analysis of glacial debris deposits and tree-rings on the Gangapurna and Annapurna III glaciers in Manang.[caption id="attachment_54081" align="alignright" width="600"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2bf9c7e80680e07baffjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="375"> Google Earth images (south is up) of the Annapurna III Glacier (left) and the Gangapurna Glacier (right).The paper presents the first detailed evidence of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/">fluctuations in Himalayan glaciers</a> over the past 200 years, and concludes that snowlines have been rising and forests advancing higher, and they did so in spurts since 1790s with the process intensifying since 1980.While <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tracing-past-glacial-floods-in-kangchenjunga/">glaciers have been shrinking and snowlines have been naturally receding</a> ever since the Last Glacial Period 12,000 years ago and the Little Ice Age 700 years ago, this process has amplified with fossil fuel burning after the Industrial Revolution.The researchers used remote sensing satellite imagery and field research to find that as the Gangapurna and Annapurna III glaciers shrank and receded, birch, pine and juniper have been moving up the mountain since 1808.For instance, in 1988 the Gangapurna Glacier was 9km long and 17.74km2 in area, and by October 2019 its length had receded to 8.05km and area was down to 17.5km2. They also found that the thickness of the ice in the glaciers had also shrunk considerably.“Just in the past 60 years, the Gangapurna glacier has receded by more than 900m,” Sigdel said in an interview. “And the speed at which they are receding has accelerated.”[caption id="attachment_54098" align="alignleft" width="500"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2c29c7e80680e07bb00jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="515"> Satellite imagery of the Gangapurna Glacier (top) and the Annapurna III Glacier in 1988, 2008 and 2019 showing that the rate of glacial retreat is accelerating.Indeed, the paper says that while the length of the Gangapurna Glacier reduced by 386m at 17.5m per year between 1957 to 1979, the speed picked up to 24m per year from 1979 to 2016 – receding by a full 903m in that time. The Annnapurna III Glacier receded at a slower pace and was smaller by 500m in the past 65 years due to the different gradient and size of the catchment.As the ice melted, vegetation started creeping up the mountains. Sigdel, who specialises in understanding treeline response to a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-terrifying-assessment-of-himalayan-melting/">changing climate in the Himalaya</a>, examined tree-rings and the vegetation that have colonised the moraines in the past decades.As shown in the before-and-after photographs of Toni Hagen’s images as well as through remote-sensing data, older moraines and those that were deposited after the Little Ice Age are already covered by dense forest, presenting evidence of forests replacing glaciers in the Himalaya.[caption id="attachment_54082" align="alignnone" width="1000"]<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915110/636bb2c59c7e80680e07bb01jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="882">Repeat photography of the Gangapurna Glacier terminus in 1957 by Swiss geologist Toni Hagen, in 1979 by Czech photographer Zdeněk Thoma. And a view of the glacier from Manang village taken by Zdeněk Thoma in 1979 and the same view in 2016. Contour map of Upper Manang showing the location of the glacier terminus in those years.Being darker, the forests also absorb more sunlight than snowfields that earlier reflected light, and together with transpiration, this feedback loop in turn could amplify <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/climate-for-change/the-great-himalayan-thaw/">the warming trend in the Himalaya</a>, the paper concludes.While the warming may favour timber and agriculture production in Nepal, Sigdel says they threaten the dry season water flow in Himalayan rivers that will have consequences downstream.He adds: “Our research confirms that the climate crisis has been seriously impacting water resources in the Himalaya. The Gangapurna and Annpurna III glaciers feed the Marsyangdi River, and their melting will affect the entire basin, endangering water supply and affecting hydropower generation and irrigation downstream.”

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Forests replace glaciers in the Himalaya

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70569c7e80680e060072jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2088" height="1474"/><figcaption>Aerial view of Baudha</figcaption></figure>Swiss geologist <a href="http://nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2692#.VRzIePmUdQ4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toni Hagen</a> first came to Nepal in 1950, crisscrossed the mountains and plains on foot to find out the kind of rocks the country was made of. His detailed stratigraphic cross sections of Nepal for the first time gave us an idea of what lay beneath our feet.Along the way he also took thousands of photographs and film which have been carefully archived by his family in Switzerland. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2692#.XhlEIy2Q0Wo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toni Hagen died in 2003</a>, but the images represent a time capsule of the land and people, and show us the way we were.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70599c7e80680e060073jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1327"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Some of these photographs were included in the multiple editions of <a href="http://nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19173" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal</a>, the classic book about the country first published in 1962 which <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/a-serious-swiss-toni-hagen-nepal,888" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced Nepal to the world</a>, and through its Nepali language edition, to Nepalis themselves.Now, the Nepal Heritage Society has published another collection of Toni Hagen’s photographs of Kathmandu Valley, some of which were included in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/kathmandu-valley-then" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an exhibition at the Nepal Art Council</a> in 2015 on the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/tony-hagen-kathmandu-exhibition,3946" target="_blank" rel="noopener">centennial of Toni Hagen’s birth.</a><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b705c9c7e80680e060074jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="423"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70609c7e80680e060075jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="423">Vishnumati flowing clean and blue with Langtang peering over Shivapuri ridge. The Bagmati at Thapathali with a monsoon cumulus looming above Pulchoki.Toni Hagen: Photos of Kathmandu Valley 1950-1960 is edited by his physician daughter, Katrin, with extended captions by history professor Poonam Rajya Laxmi Rana. The book contains photographs that have not yet been published combined with accompanying historical text. This is an important work that shows us Kathmandu in aerial photography 70 years ago, neighbourhoods and street scenes that have long gone, but there are also plenty of reminders of how the inner city bahals and squares have not changed much in the six decades since the photographs were taken.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70639c7e80680e060076jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2638" height="1778"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>‘The photos and films by my father have immense value not only for the archives but for the studies of glaciers, as many of them have changed due to climate change,’ write Katrin Hagen in her preface. ‘The pictures of the old days are somehow a cultural heritage … there was no water supply, no sanitation facilities. But the water of the Bagmati was clean, there was no plastic waste.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70669c7e80680e060077jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1267"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Indeed, the book allows us to travel back in time to a Kathmandu where the Bagmati reflects the deep-blue monsoon sky, dark rain-heavy monsoon clouds draping the familiar outline of Pulchoki, the green paddy terraces  encircling towns with earthy brown sloping tile roofs. And, possibly because he was from Switzerland, almost all of Hagen’s photographs have as their backdrop snow mountains in the background.Buffaloes wallowing in Chapagain have Dorje Lakpa in the background. Oxen pull a plough with Ganesh Himal glistening on the horizon. Women in Not Danda carry firewood, with the entire panorama of the Central Himalaya on the horizon. In one photograph from Sanga on a clear day, you can see clear across Nepal to the Annapurnas.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b706a9c7e80680e060078jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1301"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Hagen chartered a six-seater Haviland biplane in Patna and flew it into Gauchar to take the first ever aerial photographs of Kathmandu Valley in 1950. One black-and-white photograph from above Hanuman Dhoka looking east towards Tundikhel shows just how much the city has changed and how much of it remains the same. There is Tundikhel with the khari tree in the middle, the temples of Kathmandu Darbar Square, Bhugol Park, the open space around Dharara and the two-storey buildings of Khichapokhari.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b706d9c7e80680e060079jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1347"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Ambica Shrestha, President of the Nepal Heritage Society that published the book, says in an introduction: ‘Sharing these photos reminds those who witnessed Kathmandu’s past, and those who did not have the good fortune to do so, to see and experience the scenes and atmosphere of the time.’Rana’s explanatory text provide the background to the images, giving he historical context. The words accompanying the rare aerial photograph of Singha Darbar, for instance, traces the history of neo-classical Rana architecture. There is one anecdote about Jung Bahadur being asked by a foreign visitor why his palace did not have an indoor toilet. His answer: “We do not go to the toilet, the toilet comes to us.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70709c7e80680e06007ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1318"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Toni Hagen: Photos of Kathmandu Valley 1950-1960Edited by Katrin Hagen, Text by Poonam Rajya Laxmi RanaNepal Heritage SocietyVajra Books, 2019176 pages     Rs4,000<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101116/636b70739c7e80680e06007bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="451">For more photographs from the book <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/kathmandu-valley-then" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click this link to the 2015 exhibition</a> of Toni Hagen’s photographs.

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Forests replace glaciers in the Himalaya

Time capsule of Kathmandu