When it comes to visualizing melting ice, most of us conjure the distant, polar reaches of the Arctic or Antarctic. But there is a slow-moving, almost unnoticed disaster, thousands of miles above the cloud cover of the rugged remoteness of the Himalayas, that poses a threat to the future of those many millions of people that rely on the supply of frozen freshwater in the region. The gradual melting away of glaciers in the Himalayas is little noticed because it is both distant from our sense of our world and it is also slow and quite.
The Himalayas are often called the “Third Pole,” they contain the largest store of ice outside of the polar regions. Stretching across 8 countries, they feed into some of the largest of Asia’s rivers, the Ganga, Indus, Yamuna, Brahmaputra and Mekong. Yet in the remote when not captured in the media the frost of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Ladakh smaller glaciers, with no fan fair are melting at a rate observed by researchers as alarming.
Recent research from ISRO and global climate agencies have estimated that if warming continues as before, close to 40% of Himalayan glaciers could disappear by the end of this century, with individual glaciers retreating for as much as 20 to 30 meters per year. For example, the Dokriani glacier in Uttarkashi has retreated significantly in just 20 years,yet very few people are aware.
There are multifactorial reasons. Global warming is the most substantial factor but there are also some local factors that exacerbate the situation. As an example, black carbon particles emitted from vehicles and the burning of forests can eventually fall on glaciers, where the black carbon particles will absorb solar energy and help melt glaciers. Also, extensive urbanization and mass tourism in sensitive mountain environments exacerbates sensitive equilibrium. What was once a symbol of steadiness and serenity, is now a typical landslide landscape.
The melting of these glaciers is not only a climate/environmental issue, but a humanitarian issue as well. Millions of people in India, Nepal, and Bhutan depend on these glacier-fed rivers for drinking, irrigation, and hydropower. Initially, all of these rivers have flowed in part because of the excess meltwater which has flooded these rivers and also caused landslides. But as glaciers continue receding or melting away these rivers will eventually run dry, causing an even more massive deficit of useable water. So, the swing from excessive water supply to extremely low water supply is already impacting the communities living in these mountains.
In regions like Spiti and Zanskar, villagers are witnessing springs dry up forever earlier every year. There is also the increasing risk of GLOFs (glacial lake outburst floods) to communities in regions like Sikkim, since these floods pour into valleys with considerable force. While the loss of human life and infrastructure come abruptly and consequential, there will be another, longer-term consequences. Loss of soil fertility, physical displacement of homes, and mass migration of peoples that often lived harmoniously with nature for centuries.
Amidst the growing recognition of these issues, the smallest glacial environments remain unmapped and understudied. Instead, Glacial research communities and funders typically focus on well-known glaciers like: Gangotri, Khumbu, etc., while hundreds, if not thousands are also having, or have had, a major role in regulating the water balance for the region. Because of this, it is simply very difficult to document loss of glaciers, especially with the white mute of the Himalayas.
To protect glaciers, climate measures must go beyond policy statements. Local governments need greater regulatory control over construction and pollution in these mountain areas. You should encourage sustainable water management, as exemplified in the “Ice Stupa” project in Ladakh, and the skills needed for glacier conservation. Visitor education and eco-tourism policies will help visitors take proper action in fragile ecosystems.
The acceleration of hidden Himalayan glaciers melting is not something that will occur later down the line, it is a calamitous process already happening before our very eyes. Every drip of glacier meltwater drips a narrative of imbalance, of a planet evolving at a speed which humanity is unable to adapt to. What we are melting out of view at this very moment may define the lives of generations to come.
The Himalayas have long represented strength and peacefulness. Today, they are crying for help in the forms of melting ice and disappearing stream flow. The question is: are we listening?