One of the study published in Nature, states that Fewer than 120 (0.075%) have had their mass balance (the sum of the annual mass gains and losses of the glacier) directly measured in Himalayan region, and for only 37 of these are there records extending beyond 30 years. Extrapolating this tiny sample of observations to all glaciers and ice caps is a challenging task that inevitably leads to large uncertainties.[…].
Similar is the case with the study data of ICIMOD (2011) in which out of 54000+ glaciers in Himalayas, it studied 10 glaciers and concluded that the rate of ice loss had doubled since the 1980s.
Dr. Koji Fujita a Glaciologist at Nagoya University Japan working in Bhutan says that if we take a look at the glacial case here, contribution of glacier melt water in total river water is “presumably” less significant. He says that I tell it “presumably” because we don’t know well about glaciers in the Bhutan Himalayas yet. How many glaciers are there? How much ice is there? How have the glaciers fluctuated? So, current status of glaciers in Bhutan is totally veiled.
Another study in nature says that some glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range are growing, despite a warming global climate. http://bit.ly/L7ORU1
