NEW DELHI - INDIA'S environment minister came under fire Tuesday from scientists for denying climate change was causing Himalayan glaciers to melt and disputing the work of the UN's top global warming body.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Monday there was no 'conclusive scientific evidence' linking global warming to the melting of the glaciers and questioned work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC, a UN body regarded as the world's top authority on climate change, has warned Himalayan glaciers are receding faster than in any other part of the world and could 'disappear altogether by 2035 if not sooner'.

Shresth Tayal, a glaciologist with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, rejected a new report from an Indian scientist presented by Ramesh that denied the link between rising temperatures and receding ice.

'This report is incomplete. It has been written with a biased approach,' said Tayal, who labelled the findings 'self-contradictory.' Tayal criticised the Indian government for endorsing the report by geologist Vijay Kumar Raina, saying it should have analysed the results before making it public.

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri also blasted the research by Raina, calling it 'unsubstantiated' and said Ramesh's support of it was 'arrogant.' 'I cannot see what the minister's motives are. We do need more extensive measurement of the Himalayan range but it is clear from satellite pictures what is happening,' he told Britain's Guardian newspaper. -- AFP