India's Glacier Research Cuts Raise Questions as Himalayan Risks Grow

India has wound down two institutions dedicated to studying glaciers and snow hazards at a time when the Himalayan cryosphere is changing rapidly, raising questions about the country's scientific preparedness for mountain disasters.

The Department of Science and Technology closed the Centre for Glaciology in Dehradun in 2020, merging it into its parent body. Separately, the Defence Research and Development Organisation folded the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment at Manali into a new entity focused on broader geospatial and terrain studies, a move that scientists say diluted its specialised mandate.

The Himalayas, often described as the "Third Pole", hold the largest concentration of ice and snow outside the Arctic and Antarctica. Their meltwater feeds some of Asia's biggest river systems and sustains hundreds of millions of people downstream.

According to the Geological Survey of India, the Indian Himalayas contain roughly 9,500 glaciers spread across Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The exact count remains under refinement because glaciers are constantly changing and the terrain is difficult to survey.

Satellite data has sharpened the picture. An Indian Space Research Organisation analysis released in April 2024, based on four decades of observations, found that of 2,431 glacial lakes larger than 10 hectares identified in 2016-17, as many as 676 have expanded significantly since 1984. Of these, 130 lie within India — 65 in the Indus basin, 58 in the Brahmaputra basin and seven in the Ganga basin.

The growth is striking: 601 of the 676 lakes have more than doubled in size, 10 expanded between 1.5 and two times, and 65 grew by about 1.5 times. As many as 314 expanding lakes sit between 4,000 and 5,000 metres above sea level, while 296 are above 5,000 metres.

Expanding lakes raise the risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), which occur when ice or loose moraine dams fail suddenly and release large volumes of water downstream. Avalanches, landslides, earthquakes and heavy rainfall can all trigger such failures.

Recent disasters underline the danger. The Chamoli disaster in Uttarakhand in February 2021, the South Lhonak Lake GLOF in Sikkim in October 2023 and a recent glacier-related tragedy in Nepal, which killed nearly 1,400 people, have shown how exposed communities, roads, hydropower projects and infrastructure are.

Scientists warn that warming temperatures are altering snowfall patterns, accelerating glacier melt, destabilising slopes and encouraging glacial lake formation across the Himalayan arc.

Dr DP Dobhal, a veteran glaciologist and former scientist at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, said precipitation patterns are shifting. Areas that once received snow are increasingly seeing rain, the snow line is moving upward and intense rainfall events are becoming more frequent, affecting the stability of glaciers, slopes and lakes.

Dr Anil Kulkarni, a glaciologist and former ISRO scientist now associated with the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, said glacier and cryosphere research is the need of the hour but appears to lack priority.

The Centre for Glaciology was set up in 2009 under the Department of Science and Technology, with the Wadia Institute as nodal agency. It was meant to become the nucleus of coordinated Himalayan glacier research and eventually a full national institute. It produced baseline datasets, established benchmark glaciers for long-term monitoring, deployed equipment in tough terrain and trained researchers — more than 20 people, with about 10 earning doctorates. Plans for a national glaciology institute in Mussoorie and specialised laboratories never materialised.

Dobhal said the closure came abruptly, with a letter in June 2020 announcing the project was being shut.