Arunachal Pradesh lost 110 glaciers in 32 years: Study

Study reveals rapid glacier loss in eastern Himalayas, impacting freshwater availability and increasing risk of glacial lake outburst floods.

A new study has revealed that a section of the eastern Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh lost 110 glaciers in 32 years.

The study by a quartet of researchers also found that these glaciers covering an area of 309.85 sq. km disappeared at a retreat rate of 16.94 sq. km during the study period from 1988 to 2020. The retreat exposed bedrock and created glacial lakes, threatening glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).

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Glacial retreat, a key indicator of global climate change, is the process by which glaciers melt faster than new snow and ice can accumulate. The eastern Himalayas have been witness to a major GLOF – the 2023 Sikkim disaster that killed at least 55 people and destroyed a 1,200-megawatt hydropower project on the Teesta River.

Authored by Vimha Ritse, Amenuo Susan Kulnu, and Latonglila Jamir of Nagaland University’s Department of Environmental Science, and Nabajit Hazarika of the Guwahati-based Cotton University’s Department of Environmental Biology and Wildlife Sciences, the study was published in the Journal of Earth System Science.

The researchers used remote sensing and geographic information systems to map glacier boundaries, even in debris-covered areas, from Tawang to Lohit districts of Arunachal Pradesh through West Kameng, Kurung Kumey, Upper Siang, and Upper Dibang Valley districts. They also used the Randolph Glacier Inventory of Global Land Ice Measurements from Space as a reference.

They found that the number of glaciers decreased from 756 to 646 during the 32-year-long study period. The glacial cover during this period reduced by 309.85 sq. km from 585.23 sq. km, working out to a loss of a little more than 47%.