The Shrinking of Himalayan Glaciers

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Trans-Himalaya mountain range is a cold desert with winter temperatures touching -30° C, and an average annual rain/snow fall of only 100 mm.

There are approximately 15,000 glaciers in the Himalayas. Each summer, these glaciers release meltwater into the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra Rivers. Approximately 500 million people depend upon water from these three rivers.

These glaciers, like others in the world, are at risk of melting due to increasing temperatures and erratic weather patterns. Glaciers depend on heavy precipitation to replenish ice on an annual basis. If these glaciers melt, many people dependent on them will be flooded during winter and experience drought during summer.

The impact of global warming may already be affecting the Himalayas.

A shift in the snowline will result in less input to the glacier mass balance during summer periods. Therefore, higher atmospheric temperature and more liquid precipitation at higher altitude will lead to rapid retreat of glaciers in the Himalayas.

At current rates of global warming, the Himalayan glaciers could shrink rapidly.

The 1956 photograph of the Imja glacier, then one of the largest glaciers at an altitude of around 5,000m, shows a layer of thick ice with small meltwater ponds. In 2007, much of the glacier had melted into a vast but stunning blue lake. The 30-kilometre Gangotri glacier is also steadily retreating.