Hindu Kush risks losing 60% of its glaciers by 2100: report

KABUL Himalayan region, an area covering high mountain ranges of central, south and inner Asia, faces the risk of losing over 60 per cent of its glaciers by the year 2100, a global climate report said on Thursday.

The special report on oceans and cryosphere in a changing climate, prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that glacier retreat and snow cover changes have already contributed to localised declines in agricultural yields in high mountain regions, including the Hindu Kush Himalayas.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya region includes mountain ranges of the Tien Shan, Kun Lun, Pamir, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Himalayas, and Hengduan and the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau which produce one of the world’s largest renewable supplies of freshwater.

It supports 120 million people directly through irrigation systems, and a total of 1.3 billion indirectly through river basins in India, Tibet, China, Nepal, Pakistan.