Glaciers Cry for Help
The alarm bells are ringing louder in the Kashmir Himalayas. Summers are scorching. Winters are harsh and erratic. And between them, our glaciers are disappearing at a speed we can no longer ignore.
What is more worrying is that nearly 30% of the region’s glacier cover has vanished in the last 60 years. If warming continues at the current pace, scientists warn that up to 70% could be gone by 2100. This is not a distant climate statistic. It is a direct threat to water, food, and life in the Valley.
Notably, the Kolahoi Glacier — once called the crown of the Kashmir Alps, is the largest glacier in the Kashmir Himalayas. Since the 1960s it has shrunk by over 25%. Today it is retreating 35 metres every year, losing close to 1 metre of ice mass annually. Kolahoi is not alone. Glaciologists are flagging rapid retreat across key glaciers. As the ice goes, so does the steady summer melt that feeds our rivers. Rivers, farms, and lives at risk
The Jhelum, Lidder, and Chenab do not just flow through postcards. They irrigate our fields, fill our taps, and run our hydel projects. A weaker glacial base means erratic flows — floods one season, drought the next.
We are already seeing the stress. Paddy, apples, and saffron — the backbone of Kashmir’s economy and identity — are struggling with unpredictable water. When the water cycle breaks, livelihoods break with it. The danger is not only scarcity. Melting ice is forming new glacial lakes in the high mountains. These can trigger Glacial Lake Outburst Floods, or GLOFs — sudden, devastating flash floods that can wipe out downstream villages, roads, and bridges in minutes.
This phenomenon is being witnessed across the length and breadth of Kashmir where minor rainfall in the hilly regions is triggering huge flash floods causing severe damage to the local infrastructure and even changing the topography of some regions permanently.
Ironically, climate change is the big driver, but we have added to it locally. J&K has lost 40.61 sq km of forest cover in just the last two years, as per the Forest Survey of India.
Nationally, India lost 18,200 hectares of primary forest in 2024 alone, up from 17,700 hectares in 2023. Between 2002 and 2024, 3,48,000 hectares of humid primary forest were lost — 5.4% of that cover and 15% of India’s total tree loss.
For three decades, conflict also took a toll. Large-scale felling under the garb of instability stripped hillsides bare. Fewer trees mean less snowfall retention, faster runoff, and more pressure on glaciers that are already melting.
No doubt development is necessary, but not at the cost of the very ecosystem that sustains it.
What we need to realise is that the past cannot be undone. But the future can still be shaped. Kashmir’s glaciers gave us life for centuries. If we act now — with science, policy, and public will — we can return the favour.
