Prajwol Basnet :
Report
Is India a Major Culprit Behind the Melting of the Himalayas?
Nepal has taken significant steps to reduce its environmental impact, including expanding forest cover to more than 46% of its land area, promoting electric vehicles and strengthening community-based forest conservation. In contrast, India's enormous population, fossil-fuel consumption and industrial activity make it one of the world's largest emitters: India produced about 3.19 billion tonnes of fossil-fuel and industrial CO₂ in 2024, compared with approximately 18.8 million tonnes from Nepal—roughly 170 times more. The difference is also substantial for black carbon: a published inventory estimated India's black-carbon emissions at about 901,000 tonnes in 2011, while Nepal's inventory estimated approximately 39,600 tonnes in 2015, meaning India's estimated emissions were more than 22 times Nepal's in those inventories, although the reference years and methodologies differ. More importantly, pollution does not respect the India–Nepal border: atmospheric studies show that South Asian black carbon transported northward into the Himalayas, where it darkens snow and ice and increases solar absorption. At Nepal's Yala Glacier, research estimated that India and Nepal together accounted for 50-60% of atmospheric black carbon, while black-carbon deposition contributed approximately 39% of pre-monsoon glacier mass loss at that particular site. Thus, Nepal's Himalayan crisis cannot be explained by Nepal's own emissions alone; a country producing only a tiny fraction of India's CO₂ and black carbon is situated directly downstream of a massive South Asian atmospheric system, leaving Nepal to experience a disproportionate share of the environmental consequences of regional pollution and global warming.
2026-08-29 18:27:17