Himalayan glaciers are melting 65 percent faster.
Himalayan glaciers are now melting 65 percent faster due to climate change. Scientists fear a major disaster due to this. These Himalayan glaciers are the water source for about 2 billion people in Asia.
According to a research report by the Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Himalayan glaciers lost 65 percent more from 2011 to 2020 than in the previous decade. If this melting continues, 80 percent of the glaciers will disappear within the current century.
The glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region (HKH) are the source of water for 240 million people in the surrounding hilly areas. Apart from this, another 1.65 crore people in the downstream river valleys depend on Himalayan water.
Phillips Wester, lead author of the ICIMOD report, said, “Glaciers are normal to melt as temperatures rise. But they are melting at an unusual rate, with rapidity.” “It’s melting faster than we thought,” he added.
The Himalayan glaciers are the source of water for the world’s ten largest and most important rivers, including the Ganges, Indus, Mekong, Huanghua (Yellow), and Irrawaddy, and directly or indirectly provide food, fuel, and pollution-free air to billions of people. At the same time, the livelihood of many people is also dependent on it.
An earlier study showed that half of the glaciers will melt by 2100 if the global temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius by the 2015 Paris Agreement. And even if global temperature rise can limit to the pre-industrial target of 1.5 degrees Celsius, 36 percent of glaciers will still disappear.
But ICIMOD says that 80 percent of the glaciers will disappear within this century at the current melting rate.
ICIMOD is an intergovernmental organization. Its member countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, and Pakistan. Izabela Kozil, deputy head of the organization, said,
“Two hundred million people in Asia depend on the water obtained from the Himalayan glaciers and the snow deposited here. This melting of the glaciers is melting so fast that it is difficult to compensate for its losses.”
