Life in the Himalaya

MOUNTAIN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL..19, NO. 2, 1999, PP,113-121
IMPROVED PREDICTION OF LIFE EXPECTANCY FOR A HIMALYAN LAKE:
NAINITAL LAKE, UP, INDIA
BHISM KUMAR, RM.P.NACHIAPPAN, S.P.RAI, U.SARAVANAKUMAR, AND S.V.NAVADA
ABSTRACT:
An attempt has been made to predict the life of Lake Nainital, a natural lake located in
the Kumaon Himalaya with early large human settlement around it. Sediment
accumulation rates estimated by dating the lake sediment cores employing 210Pb and
137Cs dating techniques have been used for the purpose. The sediment accumulation
rates estimated by radioisotope techniques are comparable to the rates obtained by the
sediment balance method using the suspended sediment data. The estimated useful life
of the lake is about 2,200 years, which is much higher than the results obtained by
earlier investigators who used short-term bathymetric data. In the present study, long
term ( 46 years ) annual lake sounding data have also been analyzed. Large bidirectional
variations in the annual bathymetry imply that major errors are associated
with the lake sounding data that led to the under-estimation of the life span of Lake
Nainital by earlier investigators