In full retreat

Hindu Kush glaciers retreated 65 per cent faster in 2011-20, compared to previous decade. In a 2 °C warmer world, half of its glaciers could vanish

- ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY

GLACIERS WORLDWIDE are thinning at an alarming rate, but nowhere is the crisis more pronounced than in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH). Glaciers in the region retreated 65 per cent faster between 2011 and 2020 than in the previous decade, driven by climate change, says a report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Stretching across eight countries—India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Nepal and Pakistan—the HKH mountains feed 10 major river basins. Their waters sustain 240 million people in the mountains and another 1.65 billion downstream.

If global temperatures rise by 1.5°C to 2°C, HKH glacier volume could shrink by 30-50 per cent by 2100, says the “UN World Water Development Report 2025”, released on March 21. If warming exceeds 2°C, nearly half the region’s glaciers could vanish—jeopardising water security for a quarter of humanity. “We are also seeing melting in the Karakoram Anomaly,” says Sher Muhammad, remote sensing specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a regional inter-governmental nonprofit knowledge organisation based in Kathmandu. (In the 1990s, glaciologists noticed modest gains in the Karakoram Range glaciers, which earned it the nickname “Karakoram Anomaly”).

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