Witnessing change: glaciers in the Indian Himalayas
This new WWF study explores how the glaciers in the Indian Himalayas are going through change and says that smaller glaciers in the Himalayas are proving much more vulnerable to climate change impacts than previously thought, with significant implications for the livelihood and freshwater supplies of millions.
Smaller glaciers in the Himalayas are proving much more vulnerable to climate change impacts than previously thought, with significant implications for the livelihood and freshwater supplies of millions. Witnessing Change: Glaciers in the Indian Himalayas analyses continuing monitoring of two central Himalayan glaciers since 2006, trying to overcome the lack of baseline data on glaciers that is hampering studies of this key climate indicator. One of the glaciers studies is Gangotri, a 30 km long glacier famed and sacred as a principle source of the Ganges. Overall, nearly 30 percent of Ganges water comes from snow and glacier melt, with variations in snowfalls, melt rates and flow regimes having potentially profound effects across a huge area of northern India. Kafni Glacier, whose now separate elments are 4.2 kilometres long, also empties into the headwaters of the Ganges. Kafni is not only losing ice faster than Gangotri but its former and now hanging tributaries are losing ice faster still.