Recently, the United Nations declared 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation.

International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (2025)

• Raising Awareness: United Nations has declared 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation to highlight the importance of preserving glaciers in a warming world.
• World Day of Glaciers: Beginning in 2025, March 21 will be observed annually as the World Day of Glaciers to raise global awareness on glacier conservation.
• Origin: The initiative was proposed by Tajikistan at the Water and Climate Leaders’ meeting on March 3, 2021. 
  • It was formally adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2022 as part of a global call for action.

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Challenges Posed by Melting Glaciers

• Significance of Glaciers : Glaciers are large masses of ice and snow that flow due to gravity and serve as crucial climate and environmental archives, storing information about the Earth’s past. 
  • The Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI 7.0) estimates about 275,000 glaciers globally, covering 700,000 km² of area.
  • Glaciers are vital sources of freshwater, playing an essential role in the global water cycle and supporting both ecosystems and human communities.
• Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs): Continuous glacier retreat can lead to the formation and expansion of glacial lakes, which pose significant risks to downstream communities and infrastructure through the threat of GLOFs. GLOFs can cause rapid flooding, leading to devastating effects in nearby regions.
• Ice Calving: In polar regions, rising temperatures can accelerate the calving process, where large chunks of ice break off from glaciers. 
  • This disruption affects regional ecosystems and contributes to global sea level rise, threatening coastal areas globally.

Impact of Climate Change on Himalayas

• Significance of Hindu Kush: The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region holds the largest concentration of snow and glaciers outside the polar regions, earning it the title of the “Third Pole”. 
  • The HKH spans across eight countries, from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east.
• Freshwater Source : The HKH region is the source of 10 major rivers, including the Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra rivers. These rivers provide vital water resources for over 1.3 billion people, supporting drinking water, irrigation, energy generation, and other ecosystem services.
• Indian Himalayan Region (IHR): The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is part of the larger HKH system and stretches across 13 Indian states and Union Territories for about 2,500 km. 
  • There are 9,575 glaciers mapped in the Indian part of the Himalayas, as per the Geological Survey of India. Around 50 million people live in the IHR, depending on its resources.
• Impact of Climate Change:  Long-term data indicates an increasing temperature trend and decreasing solid precipitation (snow) in many parts of the IHR. 
  • The Western Himalayas receive most of their snowfall during winter months due to western disturbances, with snowmelt serving as a major water source for the Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra rivers.
• Effects of Warming: Warming temperatures and lower snowfall lead to glacier mass loss and instability. Snowfall, when accumulated on glaciers, helps to feed glaciers by increasing their mass. 
  • However, changing snow patterns due to warming have negatively impacted glacier health, increasing their vulnerability.

Differential Melting

• Glacial Behavior: Himalayan glaciers are showing a negative mass balance (loss of ice mass), except for those in the Karakoram region. 
  • The Karakoram Glaciers have remained relatively stable since the 1970s, a phenomenon known as the “Karakoram Anomaly”.
• Regional Variations: Western Himalayan glaciers (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh) are retreating at faster rates compared to glaciers in the Central (Uttarakhand) and Eastern Himalayas (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh).
  • Notable glaciers such as Chhota Shigri, Hamtah, Shaune Garang, and Mera glaciers show clear evidence of mass loss.
• Factors Influencing Melting: Climatic factors, such as temperature, rainfall, and snowfall, play a significant role in glacier melting.
  • Non-climatic factors also contribute to differential melting, including:
    • Location (altitude and latitude)
    • Topography (slope, aspect, glacier bed, size)
    • Debris cover (5%-15% of total glacier area in the IHR)
    • Glacial lakes/water bodies
    • Black carbon and other pollutants
• Heterogeneity: Himalayan glaciers are not homogeneous; they exhibit varied responses to climate change based on a combination of climatic and non-climatic factors

Impact of Melting of Glaciers

• Negative Mass Balance Himalayan glaciers are showing a negative mass balance trend, with varying rates of retreat and melting.
• Water Availability Threats Declining seasonal snowfall in the warming scenario could significantly threaten freshwater availability for downstream populations.
  • Snow and glacier melt currently serve as the primary source of drinking water and irrigation in the High Himalayan region.
• Impacts on Agriculture: Continued warming may lead to reduced water availability in the long term, posing a risk to agriculture productivity. 
  • The reduction in freshwater resources could result in adverse socio-economic consequences for the local communities dependent on glacial meltwater.
• GLOF Risks: Increased temperatures have caused an expansion of glacial lakes, raising concerns about Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).
  • GLOFs pose a growing threat to downstream communities and critical infrastructure, including hydropower projects.

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Way Forward

• Declaration by United Nations: The United Nations declared the period from 2025 to 2034 as the “Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences”, aimed at:
  • Promoting global cooperation
  • Advancing cryosphere monitoring and research
• National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE): The Indian government launched the NMSHE under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The initiative focuses on understanding the impacts of climate change on the Himalayan ecosystem.

Conclusion

There’s a pressing need for more robust policies and financial investments to establish automatic weather stations and facilitate continuous field-based glacier monitoring across the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR).

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