New Delhi. The report of the Central Water Commission has shown a good picture amidst the shrinking glaciers. According to the report, which analyzed 55 glacial lakes, the size of glacial lakes in India is expected to increase by more than 27 percent between 2011 and July 2025. This has raised hopes of eliminating the shortage of drinking water and water for irrigation.
The “Monthly Monitoring Report of Glacial Lakes in the Himalayan Region, July 2025” released by the Central Water Commission (CWC) states that the total area of glacial lakes in India has increased from 1,952 hectares in 2011 to 2,496 hectares in July 2025.
According to the report, the area of glacial lakes has increased by 27.87 percent. Out of 100 glacial lakes, only 55 glacial lakes were considered. The remaining lakes include 40 supraglacial debris cover (SDC) lakes that have no description as well as lakes that were not analyzed.
The lakes identified for monitoring include eight glacial lakes in Ladakh, seven in Jammu and Kashmir, five in Himachal Pradesh, six in Uttarakhand, 28 in Sikkim and four in Arunachal Pradesh.
The CWC monitoring also found that the total area of glacial lakes in the Himalayan region increased from 5,29,116 hectares in 2011 to 5,61,014 hectares in 2025, showing an overall increase of 6.03 per cent.
The monitoring was conducted using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery processed through the Google Earth Engine platform. Lakes were classified based on changes in their water spread area.
CWC observed a total of 2,843 glacial lakes and water bodies during July 2025. These include 581 glacial lakes located in India and 1,360 lakes in the trans-border region, covering the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins.