‘Chorabari glacier near Kedarnath retreating 7m per year'

Time of India

13-07-2025

Dehradun: The Chorabari glacier, located above Kedarnath in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district, is retreating at an average rate of nearly 7m per year, according to Doon-based Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG).
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Just below the glacier is Chorabari Tal, a moraine-dammed lake that breached in June 2013 after heavy rainfall and rapid snow and ice melt, triggering catastrophic floods in Kedarnath that killed over 4,000 people and destroyed more than 3,300 homes.
WIHG shared this data in response to an RTI query filed by Dehradun-based activist Amit Gupta, noting that the glacier's ice-covered area shrank from 6.1 sq km in 2009 to 5.91 sq km in 2019.
The institute said the retreat rate is consistent with broader glacial recession trends across the Indian Himalayas driven by rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns.
While the decline may appear modest, experts said that it signals long-term glacial degradation. Manish Mehta, senior scientist at WIHG, told TOI that there are many other glaciers in the Himalayas that were steadily retreating, like the Chorabari glacier.
"In the case of Chorabari, the rate of retreat would have been significantly higher if not for the thick debris cover, which acts as an insulating layer, slowing down the glacier's melting", he added.
A 2018 study by IIT Mumbai supports WIHG's findings. Using Landsat satellite data to track glacial retreat between 1976 and 2016, it found an average area loss of 0.8% per year, reinforcing concerns about sustained ice loss in the region.
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Experts caution that continued glacial melt increases the risk of lake outburst events, and stressed the urgent need for sustained monitoring and broader climate action to reduce warming in the region.
"It's clear that global warming and human activities are directly affecting the glacier near Kedarnath. There's an urgent need to regulate such activities and define a carrying capacity to prevent further damage.
We must ask ourselves, at what cost are we pursuing development? It is our responsibility to protect Kedarnath's sanctity and ecological balance," said RTI activist Amit Gupta.
WIHG has been monitoring the Chorabari glacier since 2003 through satellite data and field studies to track changes in snow cover and glacial dynamics. In 2011, the institute installed three automatic weather stations near the glacier to study local meteorology and surface mass balance, but they were destroyed in the 2013 floods.