UN reports warn that glacial regions like the Himalayas face more floods as temperatures rise. A climate expert said, "We need to be careful and prepare ourselves for glacier-linked incidents." India has seen many deaths from these floods, and experts say we must improve our safety measures to avoid future disasters.
The world's glacier-filled regions, including India, are expected to face more catastrophic floods similar to those in Nepal and Bhutan, according to two reports released around a week before the global climate summit (COP 31) in Turkey on November 9. The UN reports titled Overshoot and the Cryosphere: Averting Global Meltdown and State of the Cryosphere 2026: The Cost of Overshoot, which were prepared by a team of 140 scientists, reveal that glacial regions are warming at an accelerated pace.
The overshoot report found that glacial regions, including the Himalayas, have been warming much faster than the rest of the world.
It warns that exceeding the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target could lead to irreversible impacts on Earth's ice sheets, permafrost, glaciers, sea ice and polar oceans.
A recent World Meteorological Organisation analysis indicates global warming will permanently breach the 1.5°C threshold above pre-industrial levels by century's end.
The report notes that the Arctic is warming up to four times faster than the global average.
Many of the world's mountainous regions are also warming faster than the global average: for example, global warming of 1.5°C translates to between 1.8-2.2°C of average warming in the Hindu Kush Himalaya, the report states. The polar ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica are melting about six times faster today than in the 1990s, it adds.
A UN-led global report, shared by UN sources with The Telegraph, also reveals that India has witnessed the highest number of deaths from glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) among eight countries in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.
The paper, titled Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Risks, Response Strategies and Adaptation Gaps in the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region, is currently in pre-publication and covers data from 1835 to 2025.
A climate expert said the latest reports should serve as a wake-up call for everyone, including India.
We need to be careful and prepare ourselves for glacier-linked incidents. We have clearly not learned from the 2025 Chamoli incident or the 2023 Teesta flash flood in Sikkim and Bengal. We should leapfrog our glacier adaptation, the expert said.