Model Question and Answers for APSC | Bring out the relationship between the shrinking Himalayan glaciers and the symptoms of climate change in the Indian sub-continent.

Ans: According to a report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region will keep shrinking as extreme precipitation is projected to increase in major mountainous regions. The thinning Himalayas are a sign of the harmful impacts of global warming brought on by the Indian subcontinent's changing environment.

The relationship between the shrinking Himalayan glaciers and the symptoms of climate change in the Indian sub-continent:

• The countries in the Indian subcontinent may be impacted by a number of climate-related phenomena that could be triggered by the Himalayan glaciers' vulnerability to climate change.

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• A 2019 IPCC report on oceans and the cryosphere in a changing climate revealed that the HKH region, an area covering high mountain chains of central, south and inner Asia, faces the risk of losing over 60 per cent of its glaciers by 2100.
• For instance, according to early findings of a USAID-funded study, glaciers are responsible for 5% and 30%, respectively, of the Ganges and Indus rivers' water supplies. These basins may suffer cycles of flood and drought in future as glaciers melt.
• Therefore, the levels of water flowing through the major rivers could be impacted by the melting of the glaciers.

• Moraine-dammed lakes are normally formed near glacier terminus. These lakes can burst due to excessive melting and can cause floods in the Many such floods have been reported in the Himalayas and other parts of the world. Like Uttarakhand floods 2013.