The gradual warming of the earth, mountains, rivers and domestic animals have negative impacts in the Himilayas . Besides, crop pattern has also suffered from the annual rise of 0.003 degree Celsius in temperature in the country of Nepal.

The research carried out in Kaligandaki basin in western Nepal has revealed that there is increase in precipitation events and snow and glaciers have been depleting. There will be a The gradual warming of the earth, mountains, rivers and domestic animals have negative impacts. Besides, crop pattern has also suffered from the annual rise of 0.003 degree Celsius in temperature in the country.

The research carried out in Kaligandaki basin in western Nepal has revealed that there is increase in precipitation events and snow and glaciers have been depleting. There will be a significant increase in floods and drought days in future adding global warming will have negative impacts on crops. Crops like maize, sugarcane, and tropical grasses will be adversely affected, the repot adds. Global Warming Effects in Nepal Although Nepal's share in the global emission of greenhouse gases is almost nil, the consequences of global warming and climate change - receding snowlines, lake bursts and flash floods - threaten to wash away vast areas of the country, including the region that's home to Mount Everest. The meltdown has sent a chill across the Himalayan nation. Over the last couple of years, it has recorded a hazy winter, hotter summer months and frequent landslides, which experts attribute to climatic change. Weathermen believe this could be the harbinger of even more miserable weather to come. "The average temperature in Nepal is rising by 0.5 degrees Celsius per decade," points out a senior official in the climate change section in the Ministry of Population and Environment, Purushottam Kunwar.

Floods, Lake Bursts and Cloudbursts As Nepal is home to the mighty Himalayas, global warming has increased the pace of snow melting, which, in turn, has made glacial lakes swell. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) had warned five years ago that 20 big glacial lakes in the country are at risk of floods from glacial lake bursts, which could trigger huge loss of life and property.

Different reports suggest the frequency of such bursts has increased in the recent past. "Five glacial lake bursts occurred in Nepal from 1977 to 1998 according to records and satellite imagery," says Sandeep Chamling Rai, a climate change officer at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Nepal Program).

WWF-Nepal acts as a member secretary organization of the Climate Change Network Nepal, which includes a number of domestic and international environmental bodies keeping a watch on global warming and its impact on Nepal. One of the most startling results of climate change can be seen in the spectacular Tsho Rolpa glacial lake situated in the Rolwaling valley, north of the capital Kathmandu. "The lake had an area of 0.23 sq kilometers in 1950. It has since swollen to 1.7 sq kilometers," says the director general of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Madan Lal Shrestha.

Nepal is witnessing a disturbance in mountain climate, flash floods, cloudbursts, erratic weather patterns and so on. Every year, the number of people dying in floods and landslides increases. In the year 2003, more than 300 people died of floods and landslides across the country.

Greenhouse gases could indeed create a climatic calamity, say climatologists. The spatial variability of the monsoon conditions causes floods and landslides in some regions while severe drought conditions occur in other parts.

"In Nepal's context, the rise in temperature results in enlargement of existing glacial lakes, causing frequent landslides and floods, which destroy vast acres of crops due to hot air flow," says Rai.

Nepal is already a party to the international convention on climate change and is working to ratify the Kyoto protocol. But despite its deep concern, Nepal might not be able to cope with the challenge thrown open by global warming on its own, say government officials.