a) Necessity is indeed a mother of invention.
b) When areas in and around Leh began to experienced
c) water shortage, life didn't grind to a halt.
d) It is located between the natural glacier on
and the village below
Answers
Answer:
1. Chewang Norphel was a retired civil engineer by profession from Jammu and Kashmir government who gave the innovative idea of artificial glaciers to solve the water shortages problem in and around Leh. And thereafter he was called as ‘glacier man’.
2. Ladakh is located at an altitude of 3,000-3,500 meters above the sea level with a low average annual rainfall of 50mm. Glacier is the only source of water for the people of Ladakh. It is a cold desert wherein agriculture is dependent completely on glaciers melt.
3. Glaciers have been the only source of water for the people of Ladakh because the region receives a very low average annual rainfall. Also, Ladakh, unlike other regions, is not dependent on river or monsoon. Agriculture is dependent solely on the glaciers melt.
4. Because of the continuous change in climatic conditions, the patterns of snowfall and rainfall have been changing over the years which resulted in severe shortage and drought situations. But in the case of severe climatic conditions, farming is restricted to just one harvest season.
5. Glaciers are significant for irrigation because the region is located between the natural glacier above and the village level below. So, the layer lowest in altitude melts first thereby providing water in the crucial sowing season. Also, the farming is completely dependent on glacier melt.
6. The layers in lowest altitude provide water during April/May and the layers in higher altitude melt with increasing temperature thereby providing continuous water supply to the fields. Thus, with over 15 artificial glaciers in and around Leh, the farmers manage to grow two crops instead of one.
7. Since 1987, Mr. Norphel has designed over 15 artificial glaciers in and around Leh. So, he was honored with Padmashri by President Pranab Mukherjee in 2015 for his efforts. He was also nicknamed as ‘glacier man’ for his commendable contribution for the region and making farming easy.
8. At higher altitude, river or stream are diverted to a shaded area and are made to flow onto the sloping hill. Embankments are built at regular intervals for an accumulation of ice for around 3 – 4 months when a cascade of ice is formed along the slope. Thus, this technique of ice formation is often referred to as ‘artificial glacier’.
9. ‘Accumulation’ means the acquisition or gradual gathering of something. So, ‘accumulation’ is the word in paragraph 6 which means the same as ‘gathering’. Here, in this paragraph, this is being used for the gathering of water in an embankment for the ice formation thereby creating artificial glacier.
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