Glaciers in Mount Everest shrink 28% in 40 years: Report

Beijing: Due to climate change, glaciers on Mount Everest, have shrunk by 28 per cent over the past 40 years according to a report.

Mt Everest is the source of a number of major Asian rivers including Brahmaputra and Ganges.

The glacial shrinkage area is compared to the measurements taken in the 1970s in the report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Hunan University of Science and Technology, and Mount Qomolangma Snow Leopard Conservation Centre.

The glacier area on the south slope of the world's highest mountain, in Nepal, has decreased 26 per cent since the 1980s, the report said.

Mt Everest, known as Mount Qomolangma in Tibet, has been getting warmer for the past 50 years as per the report.

At present, there are 1,476 glaciers in China's Mt Qomolangma national nature reserve, covering 2,030 square kilometres, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The shrinking glaciers have resulted in swelling glacial lakes and higher river levels downstream, Kang, who has led several glacier inspection teams said.

Remote sensing data showed that the area of a glacial lake in Mt Everest nature reserve increased from about 100 square kilometres in 1990 to 114 square kilometres in 2013, Kang said.

(With Agency inputs)