Bring out the relationship between the shrinking Himalayan glaciers and the symptoms of climate change in…

Question

Bring out the relationship between the shrinking Himalayan glaciers and the symptoms of climate change in the Indian sub-continent.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Climate warming, less snowfall and black carbon are shrinking Himalayan glaciers, and that shrinkage in turn produces the subcontinent's climate symptoms of glacial lake outbursts, unstable slopes and erratic river flows. ICIMOD found Hindu Kush Himalayan glaciers disappearing about 65% faster in 2011-2020 than in the previous decade.

**Introduction**

The Himalayas, the Third Pole, hold the largest ice store outside the poles and feed the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra. Their glaciers are both a casualty of climate change and a source of its symptoms in the subcontinent.

**Climate Change Driving Glacier Shrinkage**

1. **Rising temperatures**: IMD records warming of about 0.68°C per century over India (1901-2025), faster in the high Himalayas; Raina's MoEFCC paper (2009) found Gangotri retreating roughly 20 m a year through much of the twentieth century.
2. **Less snow, more soot**: Warmer winters bring rain instead of snow, while black carbon from crop burning and diesel darkens the ice.

SKETCH: flow-cycle | Warming and melt loop
- Regional warming
- Snow and ice loss
- Darker exposed surface
- More heat absorbed

3. **Accelerating loss**: ICIMOD (2023) found Hindu Kush Himalayan glaciers disappearing about 65% faster in 2011-2020 than in the previous decade.

**Shrinking Glaciers Amplifying Climate Symptoms**

1. **Glacial lake outbursts**: The South Lhonak outburst in Sikkim (October 2023) destroyed the Teesta III dam.
2. **Erratic river flows**: Snow and glacier melt sustain the Indus and the lean-season Ganga, so early floods and lean-season shortages threaten irrigation and hydropower.
3. **Unstable slopes**: Kedarnath (2013) and the Chamoli rock-and-ice avalanche (2021) show how thinning ice loosens slopes.
4. **An uneven signal**: Stable Karakoram glaciers and Ladakh's barely retreating Kangriz show the trend varies by region.

**Conclusion**

Warming melts Himalayan ice, and the melt returns as floods, lake bursts and uncertain water for hundreds of millions. Monitoring under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem and glacial-lake early warning can turn this warning sign into timely adaptation.

Bring out the relationship between the shrinking Himalayan glaciers and the symptoms of climate change in the Indian sub-continent.

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