Glacier Research Closures Raise Questions Amid Growing Himalayan Climate And Disaster Risks

India's decision to shut down its dedicated Centre for Glaciology in Dehradun and merge its Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) in Manali into a broader defence research organisation has raised questions over the country's specialised capacity to monitor growing Himalayan risks. The concerns come as climate change accelerates glacier retreat, alters precipitation patterns and contributes to the expansion of glacial lakes across the Himalayan region, which serves as a major source of freshwater for millions of people downstream.

The Himalayas, often described as the Earth's "Third Pole", contain one of the world's largest concentrations of snow and ice outside the Arctic and Antarctica. According to the Geological Survey of India, the Indian Himalayas contain around 9,500 glaciers across Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. ISRO analysis released in 2024 found that 676 of 2,431 glacial lakes larger than 10 hectares had expanded significantly since 1984, including 130 within India across the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins.

The expansion of glacial lakes has significant implications for disaster management because unstable lakes can trigger Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). Such floods can occur when natural dams made of ice or loose moraine material fail, releasing large volumes of water downstream. The Chamoli disaster in Uttarakhand in 2021 and the South Lhonak Lake GLOF in Sikkim in 2023 have highlighted the potential consequences of high-altitude instability, while recent disasters elsewhere in the Himalayas have renewed concerns over the region's changing cryosphere.

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Scientists have also pointed to changing precipitation as a major concern. Veteran glaciologist Dr DP Dobhal, formerly associated with the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, said areas that traditionally received snowfall are increasingly experiencing rainfall, while the snow line is moving upward and intense rainfall events are becoming more frequent. Dr Anil Kulkarni, a glaciologist and former ISRO scientist associated with the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, has similarly argued that glacier and cryosphere research remains an urgent requirement as Himalayan conditions change.

India's Centre for Glaciology was established in 2009 under the Department of Science and Technology, with the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology as the nodal agency. It was intended to coordinate glacier research, develop baseline datasets, establish long-term monitoring and train researchers. However, the centre was closed in 2020 and its work was merged into the parent institute. Dobhal has described the decision as a major setback, while the Department of Science and Technology's current leadership has indicated that there are no plans to establish a new dedicated glacier research centre.

A similar restructuring affected SASE, which was established in Manali in 1969 to study snow, avalanches and other high-altitude hazards. In 2020, DRDO merged SASE with the Defence Terrain Research Laboratory to form the Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment. Avalanche and terrain research continues within the new organisation, but scientists have questioned whether the loss of standalone institutions could weaken specialised focus at a time when Himalayan hazards are becoming more complex. Experts argue that stronger national and international collaboration involving climatology, geology, hydrology, geophysics and remote sensing is needed to understand a rapidly changing Himalayan cryosphere.

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