Remember when climate change was going to devastate Indian agriculture and burn crops?
For the present time frame, I don't remember these predictions. Perhaps you can refresh my memory.
India Times, 16 February 2022
What I do know is virtually all of India's major river systems depend upon Himalayan glaciers. Further, in that almost half of Indian agriculture is dependent upon glacial melt, the country's future agricultural production prospects are precarious at best as the severity of melting continues to exacerbate due to global climate change and India's burgeoning population growth. Ironically, India is enjoying a surplus of water now benefiting agriculture with the costs to be incurred by future generations.
Although the thinning, melting, and receding of glaciers have been known for quite some time now, every new study comes as a more ominous alarm for humanity.
The Himalayas are called the third pole as it is the repository of the highest volume of ice outside the two poles. As many as 10 major rivers of the Indian subcontinent originate from the Himalayas and India’s 45 percent population is directly or indirectly dependent on the Himalayas.
Melting glaciers have a significant impact on the water resources of Himalayan rivers due to changes in glacier basin hydrology, downstream water budget, impact on hydropower plants due to variation in discharge, flash flood and sedimentation. They also increase in risk related to glacier hazards due to the enhanced number and volume of glacier lakes, accelerated flash flood, and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs)
The study concludes that the Himalayan glaciers have lost ice 10 times more quickly over the last few decades than on average since the last major glacier expansion with the rate of loss accelerating with time. In the last 400 to 700 years, the glaciers have lost around 40 percent area with the majority of loss occurring after 1950 – shrinking from 28,000 sq km to around 19,600 sq km.
