{
  "id": 7983673,
  "title": "Why melting glaciers could ‘put 20% of India’s GDP at risk’, and one change that can help",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/why-melting-glaciers-could-put-20-of-indias-gdp-at-risk-and-one",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-17T08:12:53.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-climate/himalayas-melting-glaciers-20-of-india-gdp-at-risk-10881939/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Recent floods in Nepal have drawn attention to the melting glaciers in the Himalayas. However, the impact of this melting is not always dramatic; it can also result in a gradual economic decline. A new report has quantified the economic reliance on the Himalayas, estimating that more than one-fifth of India's GDP is tied to this region.\n\nCompiled by the global consultancy Systemiq, in collaboration with the Integrated Mountain Initiative and supported by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the report, titled \"A resilient Himalaya: protecting a region at risk and securing future prosperity\", was released to shed light on the economic significance of the Himalayas.\n\nThe report's findings suggest that Rs 64.8 lakh crore, or 21.5% of India's FY24 GDP, is directly or indirectly dependent on the Himalayas. This figure represents the economic activity that can be traced back to the Himalayas, rather than a direct estimate of climate damages. While global warming contributes significantly to the problem, the report also highlights local sources of emissions that India has the ability to control.\n\nGlaciers function as natural reservoirs of water, storing ice and releasing meltwater into rivers, particularly during the dry season. However, as temperatures rise, the extra flow of water cannot persist indefinitely. The report predicts that Himalayan river basins will reach \"Peak Water\" around the middle of the century, the point at which glacier meltwater reaches its maximum before declining as the ice reserve diminishes.\n\nThe loss of glaciers would have far-reaching consequences for India's economy, as the Himalayas feed the Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra river systems. These rivers support agriculture, cities, and industry in the Indo-Gangetic plain, tea production in Assam and Bengal, hydropower generation in the Northeast, and pilgrimage economies in downstream towns.\n\nThe report also emphasizes that the Himalayas are already a hotspot for natural disasters. Covering 18% of India's land area, they account for around 35% of the country's disasters. These disasters can lead to food and water insecurity, supply chain disruptions, displacement of people, and increased macroeconomic and sovereign-debt pressures, creating a cycle where reconstruction spending leaves less resources for future resilience.\n\nOne of the key factors exacerbating the situation is black carbon, or soot, produced by incomplete combustion. Recent modeling attributes about one-third of glacier mass loss in the Himalayas to South Asian black carbon, primarily contributed by industries such as brick kilns. The report proposes a targeted fund to modernize brickmaking, upgrade viable kilns, retire the worst-performing ones, and reduce demand for fired bricks. While brick kilns are a significant source of black carbon, experts agree that tackling the issue requires addressing other sources of emissions as well, such as cookstoves, transport, and crop residue burning, on a coordinated airshed scale.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}