Glaciers are in rapid decline and loss of these glaciers will have profoundly negative impacts on climate and human life, according to this published report by scientific working group commissioned by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Science.

The Himalayan glaciers are a valuable national and global resource – they possess the largest concentration of ice outside of the Polar Regions; regulate global climate; feed most of northern India’s perennial rivers; and are an important indicator of climate change. However, this source of water is not permanent, as glacial dimensions change with the climate.

The Himalayan glaciers are a valuable national and global resource – they possess the largest concentration of ice outside of the Polar Regions; regulate global climate; feed most of northern India’s perennial rivers; and are an important indicator of climate change. However, this source of water is not permanent, as glacial dimensions change with the climate.

This document details the Black Carbon Research Initiative launched by India as part of the National Carbonaceous Aerosols Programme (NCAP). This joint initiative of several government ministries & leading research institutions builds on the existing work and sets out the science programme to respond to the scientific questions surrounding Black carbon.

Glacier thinning and retreat in the Himalayas has resulted in the formation of new glacial lakes and the enlargement of existing lakes due to the accumulation of meltwater behind loosely consolidated end moraine dams.