New Delhi, March 21 -- The rate at which glaciers are melting across the Hindu Kush Himalayas has doubled since 2000, a new report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has found, with the most recent decade recording increasingly frequent extreme melt years and mounting risks of catastrophic floods and long-term water insecurity for a region home to billions. The findings come on the back of visible consequences. The 2021 Chamoli disaster in the higher reaches of the Garhwal Himalayas involved the dislodgement of a glacieret and likely killed over 200 people; in October 2023, a devastating glacial lake outburst flood impacted South Lhonak lake in Sikkim, leading to deadly floods that killed over 50 people, and last year's Dharali disaster on August 5 in Uttarakhand - where the Kheer Ganga, fed by a glaciated zone, swept away an entire market - are among several disasters India has experienced in recent years with a glacial dimension. The Hindu Kush Himalayas hold the largest volume of ice outside the poles. Another ICIMOD report released recently and titled 'Changing Dynamics of Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region from 1990 to 2020' has mapped 63,761 glaciers across the region covering nearly 55,782 square kilometres. These glaciers are the source of at least ten major Asian river systems, supporting the food, water, energy, and livelihood security of billions. Around 78% of this glacier area, situated between 4,500 and 6,000 metres above sea level, is highly exposed to elevation-dependent warming - a phenomenon where temperature rises faster at higher altitudes than at lower ones. The latest insight on acceleration in melt is documented across 50 years of field data. The first ICIMOD report, titled HKH Glacier Outlook 2026: Insights from 50 Years of Himalayan Glacier Monitoring, draws on 302 annual observations from 38 representative glaciers recorded since September 1974. Of those, 270 - or 89% - were negative mass balance years, meaning the glaciers lost more mass than they gained....