'Global warming behind loss in area of glaciers in Himalayas'

The area coverage of the glaciers in the Nepal Himalayas has decreased nearly 12 times due to global warming, raising serious concern for the environmental balance of the region, a study released here said today.
The area coverage has been reduced to 3,902 km in 2010 from 51,687 km in 1980 due to shrinkage and fragmentation as a result of global warming.
However, the number of glaciers in the Nepal Himalayas has increased to 3,808 in 2010 from 3,430 glaciers in 1980, the report said.
The report was released at the end of the three-day "Conference on the Cryosphere of the Hindu Kush Himalaya: State of Knowledge."

Around 120 scientists, climate change experts, and officials from 16 countries attended the conference. The participants were from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, China, and Myanmar.
The reduction is mainly due to global warming, though Nepal is not making any contribution in this regard, pointed out Samjwal Bajracharya, one of the authors of the report.

The report also included data on glaciers and river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalayas based on three decades of satellite image studies.
The current data on the glaciers of five river basins, namely Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges, Bramhaputra and Irrrawaddy and four decades of glacier data from Bhutan were also released at the same time.

Some 46 papers were presented on the occasion, which mainly focused on the potential impact of climate change on the Hindu Kush Himalayas.