Himalayan Glacier Research Under Threat: Questions Rise Over Closure Of Key Research Facilities

Himalayan Disaster Risks Are Rising. Why Is India Scaling Back Specialised Glacier Research?

The Himalayas are changing faster than ever — glaciers are shrinking, glacial lakes are expanding and extreme mountain disasters are becoming increasingly dangerous. Yet, at a time when understanding these changes has never been more urgent, India has shut down or merged some of its most specialised institutions devoted to glacier and avalanche research.

India’s only dedicated Centre for Glaciology in Dehradun was closed in 2020. Around the same time, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) merged the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) in Manali with another laboratory, ending its existence as a standalone institution.

The restructuring has raised a fundamental question among scientists: when the Himalayan cryosphere is under mounting pressure from climate change, why is India reducing its specialised institutional focus on it?

Dr Anil Kulkarni, a glaciologist and former ISRO scientist now associated with the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, believes the need for such research has never been greater.

“Glacier and cryosphere research is the crying need of the hour, but it seems nobody cares,” he said.

A Mountain System Under Increasing Stress

The Himalayas are often called the Earth’s “Third Pole”. The description reflects their enormous reserves of snow and ice, surpassed only by the Arctic and Antarctica. These mountains feed some of Asia’s largest river systems and serve as critical freshwater reservoirs for hundreds of millions of people. But climate change is transforming this frozen landscape.

Scientists are observing changes in snowfall, accelerated glacier retreat, expanding glacial lakes, increasingly intense rainfall and growing instability across high-altitude terrain.

The consequences can extend hundreds of kilometres downstream.

The danger was highlighted again by the recent disaster in Nepal, where a massive collapse of ice, rock and debris triggered catastrophic flooding and killed nearly 1,400 people.

For scientists, the disaster was another warning that the Himalayan cryosphere is not simply changing slowly. Its transformation can produce sudden and deadly consequences.

• India Has Around 9,500 Glaciers
• The scale of India’s Himalayan challenge is vast.

The Geological Survey of India estimates that roughly 9,500 glaciers are spread across Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Keeping track of these glaciers is difficult because of their remote locations, extreme terrain and constantly changing boundaries. Satellite technology has therefore become one of the most important tools for monitoring them.

• And satellite observations are revealing a worrying trend.
• 676 Glacial Lakes Have Expanded

In April 2024, ISRO released an analysis based on four decades of satellite observations.

The study examined 2,431 glacial lakes larger than 10 hectares identified during 2016-17. It found that 676 had expanded significantly since 1984.

As many as 130 of those expanding lakes are located within India.

The distribution covers all three major Himalayan river systems: 65 lakes in the Indus basin, seven in the Ganga basin and 58 in the Brahmaputra basin.

The degree of expansion is even more striking.

ISRO found that 601 of the 676 expanding lakes had more than doubled in size over four decades. Ten expanded between 1.5 and two times, while another 65 grew by around 1.5 times.

Most are located at extraordinary elevations. Some 314 expanding lakes lie between 4,000 and 5,000 metres above sea level, while another 296 are situated above 5,000 metres.

• These figures represent far more than a climate statistic.
• Why Expanding Glacial Lakes Are Dangerous

A rapidly growing glacial lake can become a potential disaster waiting to happen.

If the natural dam holding the lake — often made of ice, rock or loose moraine — collapses, millions of cubic metres of water can suddenly rush downstream.

Such Glacial Lake Outburst Floods, or GLOFs, can be triggered by avalanches, landslides, earthquakes or intense rainfall.

India has already witnessed the destructive potential of these events.

The February 2021 Chamoli disaster in Uttarakhand and the October 2023 South Lhonak Lake GLOF in Sikkim demonstrated how quickly high-altitude hazards can become major downstream emergencies.

The latest Nepal disaster has added another grim reminder.

Entire villages, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities and other infrastructure can fall within the path of such events.

Climate Change Is Altering Himalayan Precipitation

Dr DP Dobhal, veteran glaciologist and former scientist at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun, says one of the clearest signs of climate change is the changing pattern of precipitation.

Places that historically received snow are increasingly experiencing rain. The snow line is moving higher, while intense rainfall events are becoming more common.

That combination can accelerate glacier melt and alter the stability of surrounding slopes and glacial lakes.

His observations underline why long-term glacier monitoring and specialised mountain research are becoming increasingly important.

But India’s institutional architecture for such research has moved in the opposite direction.

The Centre For Glaciology Was Meant To Become A National Hub

India established the Centre for Glaciology in 2009 under the Department of Science and Technology, with the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology as its nodal agency.

The goal was ambitious: build a coordinated national programme for glacier research and eventually develop a full-fledged national institute devoted to glaciology.

The centre filled an important scientific gap.

India depended heavily on Himalayan glaciers for water security and climate research, yet lacked a dedicated apex institution focused exclusively on the subject.

The programme generated baseline datasets, established benchmark glaciers for long-term observation and trained a new generation of researchers.

According to Dobhal, more than 20 researchers were trained through the initiative and around 10 completed doctoral degrees.

Scientific equipment was also deployed in difficult mountain environments.

Plans went further. There were proposals for a national institute on glaciology in Mussoorie, specialised laboratories and increased collaboration with international experts.

• Then, in 2020, the dedicated centre was closed.
• ‘This Is A Big Shock For Me’
• The Centre for Glaciology was merged into the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.

Dobhal recalls that the decision came abruptly.

“We just received a letter in June 2020. The project is closed and the infrastructure, the whole thing is merged into the mainstream of the Wadia Institute work,” he said.

Asked whether he misses the centre, Dobhal was unequivocal.

“Of course. This is a big shock for me.”

The question of whether the dedicated institution could return appears unlikely for now.

Dr Umesh Waghmare, the new Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, told NDTV that there are currently no plans to establish another dedicated research centre on glaciers.

• SASE Merger Raised Similar Concerns
• The institutional changes were not limited to glacier research.

India’s Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment, or SASE, was created in Manali in 1969 to study snow, avalanches and high-altitude hazards.

Its work has been particularly important for the armed forces operating in some of the world’s harshest environments, including Siachen.

In November 2020, the DRDO merged SASE with the Defence Terrain Research Laboratory.

The two organisations were brought together under the Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment, headquartered in Chandigarh.

Avalanche and terrain studies continue within the new organisation. However, critics point out that India no longer has a standalone apex institution exclusively focused on avalanche research.

That matters in a region where avalanches, frostbite, snow injuries and extreme cold pose persistent threats to personnel.

At Siachen, located at an altitude of nearly 5,000 metres, extreme environmental conditions have historically claimed more lives through frostbite and snow-related injuries than enemy fire.

Scientists Say India Needs More, Not Less, Capacity

For Dobhal, the solution is clear: India needs a national centre capable of bringing together different strands of Himalayan science.

“Of course, there should be a national centre,” he said. “The whole area is very critical.”

The reason is that glacier science cannot be separated from other disciplines.

Understanding the Himalayas requires climatology, geology, geophysics, hydrology, chemistry, remote sensing and social sciences to work together.

“Glacial science is the combination of all the sciences,” Dobhal said.

A stronger national institution could potentially coordinate long-term monitoring, field research, satellite observations, hazard mapping and early-warning systems.

Himalayan Risks Do Not Stop At Borders

There is another reason specialised Himalayan research requires greater attention: the mountains are shared by several countries.

Glaciers do not follow political boundaries. Neither do rivers, avalanches, climate impacts or downstream disaster risks.

Dobhal has called for stronger scientific cooperation among India, Nepal, Bhutan, China and other countries sharing the Himalayan ecosystem.

That could include data sharing, coordinated monitoring and joint research into glaciers, precipitation and mountain hazards.

The recent Nepal catastrophe demonstrated why such cooperation matters.

A disaster that begins thousands of metres above sea level can rapidly become a crisis for communities far downstream.

• The Question India Cannot Ignore
• The Himalayan region is facing a contradiction.

The scientific evidence points towards a rapidly changing cryosphere and increasingly complex disaster risks. Satellite data is showing dramatic expansion in hundreds of glacial lakes. Scientists are documenting changing precipitation patterns and glacier retreat. Recent disasters are demonstrating the deadly consequences.

Yet specialised institutions established to study precisely these problems have been closed, merged or absorbed into broader organisations.

The issue is not whether glacier or avalanche research has disappeared altogether. Research continues across Indian institutions.

The concern is whether India has enough specialised, coordinated and long-term scientific capacity to match the scale of the Himalayan challenge.

The Himalayas are often described as India’s natural water towers. They are also becoming one of the country’s most significant climate vulnerabilities.

The “Third Pole” is changing before our eyes.

The question now is whether India will strengthen the scientific infrastructure needed to understand that transformation — or wait for the next disaster to expose the gaps.