Himalayan glacier melt accelerating, study warns of flood risk to millions

A recent study has found that the Himalayas are approaching a critical tipping point, with glaciers melting at a faster rate than a decade ago, increasing risks for millions of people living downstream.

The study's findings follow an avalanche in late August on the Nepal-Tibet border, which triggered a series of landslides and severe floods in surrounding valleys, resulting in at least 1,300 deaths and more than 5,300 people missing in Nepal and China's Tibet region.

The study warned that retreating glaciers are forming unstable glacial lakes, separated from collapse by only thin layers of rock and ice, heightening the risk of sudden water surges into populated areas.

It noted that ice loss in the Himalayan region has accelerated over recent decades, while only 21 out of nearly 40,000 glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya region—which stretches across eight countries from Afghanistan to Myanmar—are being monitored on the ground.

In India alone, around 200 glacial lakes have been classified as high-risk, including 56 considered "extremely dangerous," putting millions of people living below river basins at increasing risk.