‘Even the animals seem confused’: a retreating Kashmir glacier is creating an entire new world in its wake

Meltwater from the Kolahoi glacier has sustained local agriculture for centuries. Photograph: Courtesy of The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri)

From the slopes above Pahalgam, the Kolahoi glacier is visible as a thinning, rumpled ribbon of ice stretching across the western Himalayas. Once a vast white artery feeding rivers, fields and forests, it is now retreating steadily, leaving bare rock, crevassed ice and newly exposed alpine meadows.

The glacier’s meltwater has sustained paddy fields, apple orchards, saffron fields and grazing pastures for centuries. Now, as its ice diminishes, the entire web of life it supported is shifting.