Himalayan meltdown
A Himalayan perspective
Kunda Dixit,
Kathmandu, Nepal
Ang Phurba lives in Khumjung near the base of Mt Everest in pictures of in the 1950s have now become lakes up to 3 km
Nepal. The 65-year-old Sherpa has seen mountaineering expe- long. In the Rolwaling Valley northeast of Kathmandu, the
ditions come and go, but he has also seen other changes. In his Tso Rolpa glacier has a lake that is about to burst its moraine
own lifetime, the snowline on the northern flank of the 7000 m dam. Nepal and Bhutan have more than 50 new glacial lakes
Thamserku is higher. “The ice used to come down to there in that could unleash catastrophic outburst floods downstream.
this season,” he says pointing to eye-level, “now it’s up there.”
The lake-side town of Pokhara in central Nepal is one of the most
On nearby Ama Dablam, the signs of glacial retreat are dra- spectacularly scenic places on earth. It is located at 600 m and
matic. Seracs at the mouth of a short glacier on its west face less than 30 kilometres away rises the dramatic fishtail-shaped
are now 1000 m higher than the remnants of a terminal mo- double peak of Machapuchre at 7000 m. The past two winters,
raine. Right across the Nepal Himalaya, glaciers are reced- the people of Pokhara have seen an apocalyptic sight: the black
ing dramatically. Moraine ponds in the Annapurnas, Everest summit pyramid of Machapuchre completely devoid of snow.
and other mountains that climbing expeditions had taken
Most Nepalis realise that something crazy is going on with the
weather. Kathmandu saw its first snow in 63 years this spring.
A localized hailstorm in central Nepal in April was so severe it
pulverised a whole village. But most of us don’t link all this to
global climate variability. And even if we did, there is a feeling
that it is beyond our control.

The Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau are the water towers
for Asia’s biggest rivers. The source of the Yangtse, Mekong, and
Irrawady are in eastern Tibet. The Brahmaputra, Ganges and
Indus all begin within 30 km of each other near the tri-junction
of the borders between Nepal, China and India.
Dorje Sherpa lost his daughter and grandchild during a flashflood
triggered by a glacial lake on Ama Dablam that burst in 1993. He
What happens to the snows that feed these rivers due to global
does not link the tragedy to global warming. He says: “The gods
warming will determine the future of the billion people who live
must have been angry, why else would it have happened?” downstream. Think of that the next time you stop at a petrol
Photo: Naresh Newar station.
CHAPTER 9 POLICY AND PERSPECTIVES 227
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