A new study has found that the western Himalaya is warming faster than the central and eastern stretches of the mountain range and is likely to experience the greatest loss of snow in the decades ahead. The study, which combines 120 years of observed temperature records with climate projections, examined how temperature and snow patterns are changing across three sectors of the Indian Himalayan region and how those changes could evolve by the end of the century.
Led by the Department of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics at Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, Ranchi, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, and Ashoka University, the research examines the western Himalaya, comprising Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh; the central Himalaya, largely Uttarakhand; and the eastern Himalaya, including Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and the wider Northeast.
The researchers found that the western Himalaya consistently shows the strongest warming signal across seasons and emission scenarios. Winter is warming faster than spring in the western and central Himalaya, while night-time temperatures are increasing faster than daytime temperatures in much of the region. The projected consequences for snow are particularly stark, with spring snow loss in the western Himalaya by the end of the century potentially being around three times greater than under a low-emission pathway.
The study also projects that winter snow loss in the western Himalaya could be more than five times greater under the highest-emission scenario than under the lowest-emission pathway. The researchers noted that the warming has not occurred at a uniform pace, with warmer-than-normal years becoming increasingly common across all three sectors during the past two to three decades.
The three sectors collectively contain more than 15,000 glaciers and form the headwaters of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems, which support the livelihoods and water needs of roughly 1.5 billion people. The regional differences therefore have implications well beyond the mountains themselves, particularly for water availability, agriculture, ecosystems and communities downstream.
The study highlights the need for climate adaptation strategies tailored to the different Himalayan sectors rather than policies that treat the entire mountain range as a single climatic system. The researchers recommend region-specific climate services and adaptation policies, stronger monitoring that combines ground-based observations, satellite products and sustained high-resolution climate modelling, improved early-warning systems, sustainable water management, community-level resilience programmes and greater transboundary cooperation.
