Examine how accelerated deglaciation in the Himalayas compounds existing disaster risks in the region. What institutional mechanisms does India have to address these hazards, and what gaps remain?

Q. Examine how accelerated deglaciation in the Himalayas compounds existing disaster risks in the region. What institutional mechanisms does India have to address these hazards, and what gaps remain? (15 marks, 250-350 words)

Himalayan glacier mass loss accelerated by about 65% in 2011–2020 over the previous decade, with up to 80% of ice volume at risk by 2100 [2]. Deglaciation is thus not only a water-security concern but an active multiplier of disaster risk in an already fragile, densely settled mountain system.

How deglaciation compounds hazard risk - New hazard classes: ISRO's 2026 study traced the 5 August 2025 Dharali (Uttarkashi) flash flood to collapse of an exposed ice patch in the nivation zone of the Srikanta Glacier — an emerging cryo-hydrological hazard invisible to conventional lake-based models [1]. - Cascading failures: thinning snow and firn destabilise ice and moraine; combined with cloudbursts this yields rock-ice avalanches and debris flows, as at Chamoli (2021). - Proliferating glacial lakes: nearly 7,500 lakes exist in the Indian Himalaya, of which 189 are rated high-risk [3]. - Rising exposure: settlements, the Gangotri tourism corridor, hydropower and roads occupy narrow valley floors, converting moderate hazards into large losses.

Existing institutional mechanisms - NDMA's National GLOF Risk Mitigation Programme (~₹150 crore) for Uttarakhand, Himachal, Sikkim and Arunachal — hazard assessment, automated early warning and lake-lowering, with CWC, GSI, ITBP and the Army [3]. - NMSHE under the NAPCC, coordinated by DST — the only area-specific national mission, mandated to assess Himalayan cryospheric vulnerability [4]. - ISRO/Space Applications Centre satellite inventories enabling pre-event detection of ice-patch exposure [1]. - Alignment with the Sendai Framework and the Early Warnings for All initiative [5].

Persisting gaps - Monitoring remains lake-centric; non-lake ice-mass failures are unmapped and lack warning protocols [1]. - Weak last-mile connectivity where lead times run to minutes. - Fragmented data across ISRO, GSI, WIHG and CWC, with no single operational cryo-hazard forecasting authority. - Hazard-zone land-use regulation rests with States and is poorly enforced.

Deglaciation is converting a slow climatic process into sudden, localised catastrophes. Institutionalising time-series satellite surveillance of unstable ice, a unified cryo-hazard warning cell, and risk-informed hill land-use — as the ISRO study urges — would align India's Himalayan preparedness with Sendai's early-warning commitments.

(~330 words)

Sources: 1. Ice-patch collapse and early-warning implications from a Himalayan flash flood: emerging cryo-hydrological hazards under deglaciation — npj Natural Hazards (2026) — Dharali flood cause, nivation-zone ice patch, cryo-hydrological hazard concept, satellite early-warning recommendation 2. ICIMOD, Water, Ice, Society and Ecosystems in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HI-WISE) report — 65% acceleration in glacier mass loss; up to 80% volume loss by 2100 3. PIB, Ministry of Home Affairs — Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Mitigation — NDMA's National GLOF Risk Mitigation Programme, ~7,500 lakes, 189 high-risk lakes, four States, partner agencies 4. Department of Science & Technology — Climate Change Programme (NMSHE) — NMSHE as the area-specific NAPCC mission for Himalayan ecosystem assessment 5. UNDRR — Early Warnings for All under the Sendai Framework 2015–2030 — international early-warning commitment India is aligned to