A majority of Himalayan glaciers, which serve as the lifeline of north India, are melting at a faster rate, posing a serious threat to water security in the region, a study claims.

The finding is part of the second of the four volume report “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” prepared by Working Group II of IPCC, which will be released on April six in Brussels.

“Not just Gangotri, many other glaciers in the Himalayas were melting faster due to global warming. This posed a great threat to water security in the region as it was fed by these Himalyan glaciers,” said Suruchi Bhadwal, Associate Director of The Energy and Research Institute (TERI) and one of the co-authors of the report.

Termed this as a “shock”, Bhadwal said, “It took us a green revolution to attain self sufficiency in food supplies, and today we are again facing a threat of losing it.”

“A country like India could not ignore climate change. The problem we were facing here was lack of infrastructure, machinery and good monitoring systems. But it would be wrong to say that the government is inconsiderate. The 11th Five Year Plan would come out with some strong policies on climate change,” Bhadwal said. — PTI