"On May 12, 2025, Buddha Day, Buddhist monks and scientific researchers gathered to pay tribute to Yala Glacier in Nepal's Langtang Valley. The International Centre for Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an international NGO housed in Kathmandu, collaborated with local Indigenous community leaders to organize this event to raise awareness of Yala's rapid retreat and highlight the risk across Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) glaciers."
"ICIMOD has often referred to the HKH region as the " pulse of the planet." Extending across eight countries and pouring into 10 major river systems, HKH glaciers provide clean water for nearly 2 billion people. But now, Yala faces glacier death. A glacier can be declared dead when the movement of its ice has ceased: the glacier no longer flows. Yala is predicted to be the first glacier in Nepal to die."
"Yala has shrunk 66 percent since 1974. Since ICIMOD began annual field work and training there in 2011, the glacier has retreated significantly, requiring researchers to move their original base camp. Studies predict that Yala will die by the 2040s. Should that prediction hold true, Yala will join the ranks of other dead glaciers. In 2019, a ceremony was held for the Okjökull Glacier in Iceland."
On May 12, 2025, Buddhist monks, researchers and Indigenous community leaders held a tribute to Yala Glacier in Nepal's Langtang Valley. ICIMOD and local leaders organized the event to raise awareness of Yala's rapid retreat and HKH glacier risks. HKH glaciers span eight countries, feed 10 major river systems, and provide clean water for nearly 2 billion people. Yala has shrunk 66 percent since 1974 and, since 2011, has retreated enough to force researchers to move their base camp. A glacier is considered dead when its ice stops flowing, and studies predict Yala will die by the 2040s.
Read at State of the Planet
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