People pay tribute to Yala after Buddhist monks performed a ceremony for the glacier, with the Himalayas towering behind them on Monday. — AFP
Dozens trekked to Nepal’s Yala glacier for a ceremony Monday to mark its rapid disappearance due to climate change and put a spotlight on global glacial retreat.
The Yala glacier, located between 5,170 and 5,750 metres above sea level, is in the Langtang Valley in northern Nepal.
Since 1974, the glacier has shrunk in area by 66% and retreated 784 meters, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
Scientists warn it may eventually disappear by the 2040s if the warming trend continues, and might be among the first in Nepal to join the growing numbers of glaciers declared “dead” worldwide.
“In the 40 years I have studies this glacier, I have seen it halve with my own eyes. We worry that the next generation might not be able to see it,” Sharad Prasad Joshi, a cryosphere specialist at ICIMOD, told AFP.
Prayer flags fluttered Monday as Buddhist monks performed a ceremony for Yala, with the Himalayas towering behind them.
Two granite plaques were unveiled, engraved with memorial messages in Nepali, English and Tibetan.
“This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it,” part of the message in one of the plaques read.
The words were by Icelandic writer Andri Snaer Magnason, whose message is also at the site of the world’s first glacier funeral in Iceland.
Glacier funerals have also been held in Mexico, the United States and Switzerland.
The ceremony comes as the world marked near-record high global temperatures in April, according to the EU’s climate monitor.
In its latest bulletin, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said that April was the second-hottest in its dataset, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations.
All but one of the last 22 months exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the warming limit enshrined in the Paris agreement, beyond which major and lasting climate and environmental changes become more likely.
‘Time to act’
Yala is one of seven glaciers in the 3,500 kilometre-long arc of the Hindu Kush Himalayas to have been monitored annually for a decade or more, according to ICIMOD.
Joshi said that the ceremony was also to honour the glacier as it has been an “open textbook” for young researchers and glaciologists.
Himalayan glaciers, providing critical water to nearly two billion people, are melting faster than ever before due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters.
Experts say that on current melt rates, many glaciers worldwide will not survive the 21st century.
Last month, the United Nations said that all 19 of the world’s glacier regions experienced a net loss of mass in 2024 for the third consecutive year.
Together, they lost 450 billion tonnes of mass, the organisation said, citing new data from the Swiss-based World Glacier Monitoring Service.
Maheshwar Dhakal, chief at the Nepal government’s climate change management division, said in a statement shared by ICIMOD that Nepal is at the frontlines of the impacts of temperature rise despite minimal emissions.
“We are urging world leaders to pay attention to the changes in mountain glaciers, such as Yala, because our own fate, and futures, is bound up in those of our frozen freshwater reserves,” Dhakal said.
“Glacier loss is irreversible on human timescales. The time to act is now.”
