ISLAMABAD: The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) says over 7,000 people have lost their lives to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in High Mountain Asia in the past 190 years, with 102 deaths from the Sikkim event that is higher than the recent past.

A new dataset, released by ICIMOD on Friday, is a repository of over 700 glacier lake outburst floods dating back almost two centuries, and including recent devastating events in Sikkim and Bhutan in October.

Karakoram, the world’s second highest mountain range, has seen the highest number of recurrent recorded glacial lake outburst floods in High Mountain Asia.

Impacts from GLOF events have increased over threefold since the previous regional assessment, showing the importance of consulting local sources for accurate estimates of loss and damage.

According to ICIMOD Remote Sensing and Geo-information Analyst, Finu Shreshtha “it is always a challenge to get historic data on High Mountain Asia, because the region is inaccessible, and research here has historically been so difficult,” said Ms Shrestha. “Through painstaking collaboration with regional partners, we have managed to piece together a robust picture of major events in this region dating back to 1833, he said.

ICIMOD says 23 per cent GLOFs were recurrent events, with the highest frequency observed in ice-dammed glacial lakes in the Karakoram region, pointing to ongoing risks for local communities.

The overall increase in GLOFs is mainly due to better observations and reporting, but the overall damage to infrastructure from these events has likely increased in the recent past.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2023