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World Day of Glaciers

Glaciers are the largest natural reservoirs of freshwater on Earth, sustaining ecosystems, livelihoods, and economies globally. They store about 70 percent of the world’s fresh water. According to the World Meteorological Organization’s latest report on glaciers, 2024 saw all glacier regions worldwide report losses due to rising temperatures and changing rain and snowfall patterns for the third straight year.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) glaciers are a critical source of water for nearly two billion people, sustaining agriculture, drinking water, and hydropower. However, the glaciers in the region are disappearing at an alarming rate, and the consequences will be felt far beyond the mountains through water shortages, reduced agricultural productivity, and greater disaster risks.

As climate change accelerates this rapid glacier loss, the region’s changing cryosphere is already posing devastating consequences for both people and ecosystems.

63,700+ glaciers, covering 55,782.02 km², storing up to
5,735.79 km³ ice. This massive ice reserve is shrinking rapidly.
Climate impact is intensifying. The region’s glaciers are losing ice at
nearly twice the rate since 2000.
Most glaciers are located at elevations between 4,500 – 6,000 masl, where
they are highly sensitive to elevation-dependent warming.
Only seven glaciers are monitored to fully understand the extent of risk.
Insufficient records undermine climate risk planning.

Today as we join the global community to commemorate the World Day of Glaciers, we are bringing two important documents that provides latest dates on regions glaciers.

HKH Glaciers 1990 to 2020

Changing Dynamics of Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region from 1990 to 2020

  • The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region holds an inventory of over 63,700 glaciers, covering nearly 55,782.02 square kilometre and storing around 5,735.79 cubic kilometre of estimated ice reserve, based on 2020 Landsat satellite imageries.
  • The HKH glaciers form one of the world’s largest natural water reserves; these are the source of at least ten major Asian river systems; and support food, water, energy and livelihood security of about two billion people in the region.
  • Around 78% of the region’s glacier area – located at an altitude range of 4,500 – 6,000 metres above the sea level (masl) – is highly exposed to elevation-dependent warming; more so, in the context of accelerating climate change.
  • Glacier loss in the HKH is widespread, and it is occurring at an accelerating rate. Between 1990 and 2020, the HKH glaciers lost about 12% of their total area and 9% of estimated ice reserves.
  • Glacier losses are almost ubiquitously concentrated below 6,000 masl – the meltwater regulating zone – across all major river basins and sub-mountain ranges in the region, thereby affecting both seasonal water availability and long-term river flows.
  • Glacier losses are spatially skewed in the southern and eastern part of the region. Particularly, Hengduan Shan and parts of Eastern Tibetan Mountains experienced the highest percentage of glacier area losses, with some places herein accounting for up to 33% of the total area lost in just three decades. However, the highest area concentration and loss of absolute glacier area is higher in the central, western Himalayas and Nyainqêntanglha mountain range.
  • With (smaller) glaciers of size below 0.5 km2- especially those facing east and southeast and located on the steeper slopes – shrinking more rapidly than others, the immediate risks of localised water shortage and hazards are intensifying. Moreso, when about three-quarters of the glaciers in the region fall in this size class.
  • The larger glaciers (above 10 km2 or so) that hold nearly 40% of the region’s natural water reserves, are more prone to long term risks of shrinkage under exacerbating climate crisis. Given that, the heavily glaciated Karakoram range, housing 18 out of the 25 largest glaciers in the region, remains highly vulnerable to long-term water, food, energy, livelihood and disaster risks that might have ramifications for the entire region.
  • Among the 10 major basins, over 74% of glaciers number and area in the HKH region are concentrated in the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra.
  • While glacier area loss percent are significantly high in the eastern parts of the region, these three major basins (Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra) in the southern part the region experienced the largest absolute area losses, highlighting their critical vulnerability.
Media Assets
Data
Report

HKH Glacier Outlook 2026

Understanding glacier change in the Himalaya through 50 years of field observation

The Himalayan cryosphere is approaching a critical tipping point of no return.

  • Post 2000, glacier wastage in the Himalayan region has doubled signalling rapidly escalating climate impacts.
  • A time series analysis of mean annual mass balance of 38 monitored glaciers reveals a total loss of up to 27 meters of ice thickness since 1975.

Robust assessment of the intensity, scale and long-term impact of Himalayan glacier crisis is limited by the dearth of adequate monitoring data. With thin sample size of ‘benchmark’ glaciers for monitoring – that too, spatially concentrated – much of the region, is a ‘black box’ in terms of cryosperic risk assessments.

  • Only 18% of the 38 monitored glaciers meet the World Glacier Monitoring Service’s (WGMS) benchmark standards.
  • Circa 30% of these are located in India (Chhota Shigri and Hoksar) and 70% in Nepal (Mera, Pokalde, Rikha Samba, West Changri Nup, and Yala) and are representatives for the central and western Himalayas, in the main.
  • Major glacierised Himalayan regions like the Karakoram, Sikkim, Zanskar, and Bhutan, remain undermonitored.

One amongst the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) for understanding, predicting, and adapting to climate change, glaciers (and glacier change, in particular) serve as early warning indicators of exacerbating climate changes across mountain ecosystems. Accessible, sustained and improved glacier monitoring, therefore, is the need of the hour. Moreso, in the Himalayas.

  • Sustained monitoring of representative and benchmark glaciers, even if small in number, is crucial for minimising the data void that can otherwise enfeeble climate-resilient adaptation planning and hydrological projections is left unaddressed.
  • Monitoring methodologies need better standardisation, and monitoring efforts must expand into underexplored regions.

The global recognition of 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation has brought the urgency of improved glacier monitoring to the global centrestage — a call that continues into the Decade of Action on Cryosphere (2025–2034).

Media Assets
Report

In deep reverence to Yala Glacier

World Water Day

The snow and ice held in the mountains of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) provide freshwater for two billion people in Asia. Stretching across eight countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan, the HKH forms the source of major river systems supporting irrigation, hydropower, cities and ecosystems downstream.

With glaciers disappearing at an unprecedented rate due to climate change, scientists warn of devastating consequences for people and nature from the region’s changing cryosphere.

This critical water supply is increasingly under pressure from the impacts of climate change, including accelerated glacier melt and disruptions to seasonal water cycles.
These environmental stresses disproportionately deepen existing inequalities, exacerbating poverty, triggering displacement, and placing an unequal burden on women, who are often primarily responsible for water collection.
This World Water Day focusing on water and gender highlights an important truth: securing a sustainable future requires moving beyond management. Building equity and resilience into every decision is the key.

HKH Water

Rapid changes in the cryosphere are intensifying cascading hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), landslides and debris flows. These hazards compound with monsoon floods, flash floods, droughts, and heatwaves, threatening lives, infrastructure and services from mountains to downstream.

Irrigation systems, hydropower, transport networks, Water, sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure across the HKH needs to be updated to reflect current climate conditions.

Poor households, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and marginalised communities face disproportionate impacts due to higher exposure to risks, insecure land tenure, limited access to services and weaker representation in decision-making.

More than 60% of HKH runoff crosses at least one international border, linking upstream and downstream economies. Infrastructure and land-use decisions in headwaters have implication for downstream water security.

Despite scientific advances, gaps persist in monitoring, joint hydrological observations, hazard and loss data, and gender-disaggregated information, which continue to constrain risk informed planning.

Blog: Exploring online and onsite learning to scale integrated water management

Learn more

ICIMOD’s work

From glaciers to groundwater, the HKH holds the key to climate-resilient water futures.ICIMOD brings unique regional insight into how climate change is disrupting water systems from cryosphere melt upstream to urban flooding and water scarcity downstream.

Our science and solutions highlight the urgent need for integrated, cooperative, and nature-based approaches to river basin management.ICIMOD’s multiscale IRBM trainings explicitly integrate Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) and emphasise youth and women leadership as drivers of equitable water governance, innovation, and sustainable basin management.

Observing Today, Protecting Tomorrow

As climate signals intensify, risks across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) are also becoming more severe with each passing year. Manifesting as hazards, the nature, frequency, and intensity of these risks have also changed significantly. Known as multi-hazards, these risks now interact with each other, triggering multiple disasters downstream while other risks can further compound their impacts, leading to even greater loss of lives and livelihoods. Some particularly devastating multi-hazards in recent memory include the Melamchi flood in Nepal in 2021, the Afghanistan floods of 2024, and the monsoon floods in India of 2025.

The ability to provide forecasts and early-warning for these hazards, means the saving of lives and livelihoods for many families that are at the frontline of climate change in the HKH. Through the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)’s experience, a mix of locally adapted solutions including the community- based flood early warning systems, and forecasting tools like High-Impact Weather Assessment Toolkit (HI-WAT) are essential services.

More importantly, these services are an essential piece of the risk management puzzle, where forecasting systems along with early warnings can inform local planning efforts to be better prepared to anticipate, and respond to risks.

Under the theme ‘Observing Today, Protecting Tomorrow,’ the global meteorological community highlights the vital role of accurate observations, and data sharing in saving lives, supporting sustainable development, and strengthening resilience to climate change, and extreme weather. By investing in observation systems, and scientific innovation today, people, ecosystems, and economies can be better safeguarded for future generations.
This year’s World Meteorological Day, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) highlights that hazard forecasting can be significantly improved by adopting a wider range of data-collection methods and expanding observation points. But this data also needs to be translated and adopted by communities on the ground, so their response efforts help them in protecting their tomorrows.

World Meteorological Day

  • Extreme weather-related hazards caused reported economic losses of US$ 4.3 trillion between 1970 and 2021 and killed nearly 2 million people.
  • The HKH has seen a rise in multi-hazard events in the past 20 years, affecting an estimated 750 million people.
  • According to the World Bank, universal access to early warning services will prevent at least US$ 13 billion in asset losses and US$ 22 billion in well-being losses every year. Just 24 hours advance warning can reduce storm or heatwave damage by up to 30%.
  • Earth observations are more important than ever to monitor the impacts of our rapidly changing climate – including land and ocean heat, melting ice and glaciers, and rising sea-levels. In the HKH, earth observations have helped in providing post-disaster assessments including glacial lake outburst floods and even droughts.
  • Weather forecasts depend on access to 24/7 global observations. But there are large geographical gaps.
  • Many stations in Least Developed Countries are either non-operational or reporting inconsistently. This results in significant data gaps, and in forecast quality.
  • Advances such as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing are improving weather predictions and impact-based early warning systems. In the HKH, these advances can significantly improve how early warning information along with impact-based forecasting is adopted and used across relevant disaster management agencies, line agencies and communities to complement on-ground needs.