Perhaps there is no one except him at the moment to earn more disdain from the Union Government of India. He is none other than Rajendra Pachauri, key person to criminate India’s environment ministry of “arrogance” over a government report claiming there was no confirmation that climate change has caused “abnormal” shrinkage of glaciers in the Himalayas.

What have been the government’s reactions? Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of Environment, released the controversial report in Delhi, saying it would “challenge the conventional wisdom.” The reaction has been bizarre surely since only two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that Himalayan glaciers were receding faster than those in any other part of the world. What is more appalling, it could disappear in total by 2035, if not sooner.

However, on November 9 Ramesh denied any such risk existed, and said he was prepared to take on “the doomsday scenarios of Al Gore and the IPCC.”

He said: “There is no conclusive scientific evidence to link global warming with what is happening,” adding that although some glaciers were receding they were doing so at a rate that was not historically alarming” “My concern is that this comes from western scientists … it is high time India makes an investment in understanding what is happening in the Himalayan ecosystem.”

Let’s crack down on reactions of Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, then. He said: “I don’t know why the minister is supporting this unsubstantiated research. It is an extremely arrogant statement.”

There has been a startling finding. The report asserts the Gangotri glacier, the main source of the river Ganges, receded fastest in 1977 and is today “practically at a standstill.” Furthermore, some scientists have warned the river beds of the Gangetic Basin - which feed hundreds of millions in northern India — could run dry if the glaciers melt.

Does the Indian government comprise brainsick functionaries?