Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) Assessment Report

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) recently released the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) Assessment report.
Findings of the report:
  • Regions in higher altitudes tend to warm faster than low-lying lands. So, a global temperature increase of 1.5ºC could mean at least a 1.8ºC temperature rise in the Hindu Kush Himalayas.
  • More than 35 % of the glaciers in the region could retreat by 2100, even if the global temperature rise is capped at 1.5º C.
    • This could destabilise the hydrology of large parts of South Asia, China and Myanmar.
    • This will have a major bearing on the ice-fields, which are the largest repository of permafrost outside the polar regions.
  • Since the region’s snow is the source of 10 major river systems, large-scale warming could drastically alter the river flows in these countries.
  • The receding glaciers could cause a deluge in the rivers during the monsoon while the flows are likely to reduce during the dry seasons, with serious implications for irrigation, hydropower and ecosystem services.
  • Hindu Kush Himalayan region is a heat sink in summer and a heat source in winter, and this influences the Indian summer monsoon. So, the receding glaciers might be the reason for the changing monsoon.
    • The number of intense precipitation days and intensity of extreme precipitation have increased overall in the last five decades.
    • If these trends persist, the frequency and magnitude of water-induced hazards in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region will increase.
  • The HKH is sensitive to climate change — air pollutants originating within and near the HKH amplify the effects of greenhouse gases and accelerate melting of the cryosphere through the deposition of black carbon and dust, and changing monsoon circulation and rainfall distribution over Asia.

Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

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