The HKH Snow Update 2025 highlights a significant decline in seasonal snow across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, with snow persistence 23.6% below normal — the lowest in 23 years. This trend, now in its third consecutive year, threatens water security for nearly two billion people. All twelve major river …
Glaciologists are arguing over how a highly contentious claim about the speed at which glaciers are melting came to be included in the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In 1999 New Scientist reported a comment by the leading Indian glaciologist Syed Hasnain, who said in an …
It was a dramatic declaration: glaciers across much of the Himalayas may be gone by 2035. When New Scientist heard this comment from a leading Indian glaciologist, we reported it. That was in 1999. The claim later appeared in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's most recent report - and …
The elevation of the Tibetan plateau is thought to cause its surface to serve as a heat source that drives the South Asian summer monsoon, potentially coupling uplift of the plateau to climate changes on geologic timescales. Here, however, an atmospheric model is used to show that flattening of the …
Received wisdom about the main driver of the South Asian monsoon comes into question with a report that tests the idea that the Himalayas, not the Tibetan plateau, are the essential topographic ingredient.
Kalyan Ray, New Delhi, Jan 10, DHNS: India continues to sink within itself, creating a mega self-pull in the process that has put the mighty Himalayas under severe duress, triggering earthquakes. A new theory on the formation of the world
Following a unified approach, an objective criterion has been developed for the determination of yearwise onset and withdrawal dates of the summer monsoon over the 19 subregions across India. In total 14 meteorological parameters are considered in the development of the objective criteria, two of which represent heating over south …
River flow response to the changing climate is a major concern in the Himalayan region. Present understanding regarding the impact of glacier shrinkage on the river flow variations is summarized in the IPCC 2007, which stated that "as these glaciers retreat due to global warming, river flows are increased in …
We find evidence that black soot aerosols deposited on Tibetan glaciers have been a significant contributing factor to observed rapid glacier retreat. Reduced black soot emissions, in addition to reduced greenhouse gases, may be required to avoid demise of Himalayan glaciers and retain the benefits of glaciers for seasonal fresh …
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Government of Finland signed an agreement on 15th December on a collaborative project to establish a regional flood information system in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.Finland is providing a maximum of 2 million Euros over three years (2009-2012) for the project …
Contrary to the claims of Sikkim Glacier Commission that there has been no significant decrease in glaciers in Sikkim due to global warming and climate change, an international media house has published a news item asserting evidence that glaciers in Sikkim and other Himalayan regions are disappearing due to climate …
At a time when the impact of global warming and human activities have been recognised as threats to Northeast India, a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has emphasised the need for concerted action to protect the Eastern Himalayan region. A study report
The melting of the glaciers will have an adverse impact on the entire South Asian region, said Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who came to a side event organised by Pakistan
RIYAZ WANI While Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh believes glacier melting has little to do with climate change, expert Dr Shakeel Ramshoo has rung the alarm bells, saying the Valley
COPENHAGEN WAS going to be the big opportunity to sign on to a better environmental world order. Instead, the road to it has been marked with zero-visibility smog impairing collective human vision. Just when one thought things could not get worse, along came
As the world braced for bruising negotiations and prayed for a deal at Copenhagen, an icon of the Internet age sang for the glaciers of Kashmir. Against the breathtaking backdrop of the snows of Gulmarg, alternative rock and pop artiste and YouTube sensation Terra Naomi strummed her guitar and sang …
Two centuries ago, when the then prime minister of Kathmandu, Bhimsen Thapa, wanted to make important announcements, royal heralds clambered atop Dharahara, the 11th storey minaret he had built, to bawl out the proclamation from there. Two centuries later, Nepal
SUDESHNA SARKAR Nepal's coalition government on Friday basked in global limelight and applause with Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal leading a historic meeting of his Cabinet in the shadow of Mt. Everest, the highest peak in the world, to draw the attention of nations to the perils of climate change …
