BBC:
Much less winter snow is falling on the Himalayas, leaving the mountains bare and rocky in many parts of the region in a season when they should be snow-clad, meteorologists have said.
They say most winters in the last five years have seen a drop compared to average snowfall between 1980 and 2020.
Rising temperature also means what little snow falls melts very quickly and some lower-elevation areas are also seeing more rain and less snow, which is at least in part due to global warming, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other scientific reports.
Studies have also shown there is now what is known as “snow drought” during winter in many parts of the Himalayan region.
Accelerated melting of glaciers in the wake of global warming has long been a major crisis facing India’s Himalayan states and other countries in the region. This dwindling snowfall during winter is making matters worse, experts have told the BBC.
They say that the reduction in ice and snow will not only change how the Himalayas look, it will also impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people and many ecosystems in the region.
As temperatures rise in spring, snow accumulated during winter melts and the runoff feeds river systems. This snowmelt is a crucial source for the region’s rivers and streams, supplying water for drinking, irrigation and hydropower.
Apart from impacting the water supply, less winter precipitation – rainfall in the lowlands and snowfall on the mountains – also means the region risks being gutted by forest fires due to dry conditions, experts said.
They add that vanishing glaciers and declining snowfall destabilise mountains as they lose the ice and snow that act as cement to keep them intact. Disasters like rockfalls, landslides, glacial lakes bursting out and devastating debris flows are already becoming more common.
