Overview
- Two ICIMOD studies find average ice-loss rates have risen from about 34 cm per year before 2000 to 73 cm per year since.
- Using 50 years of records with 302 annual observations from 38 glaciers, the reports show 89% of monitored years registered net mass loss.
- The region has lost up to 27 meters of ice thickness since 1975 and about 12% of glacier area between 1990 and 2020.
- Losses differ by basin, with glacier area declining 6% in the Indus, 21% in the Ganga, and 16% in the Brahmaputra over 1990–2020.
- Smaller glaciers under 0.5 sq km are shrinking fastest, escalating risks of extreme melt years, flood hazards, and local water shortages, as ICIMOD urges expanded monitoring, adaptation funding, and cuts to black-carbon pollution.