KATHMANDU: The International Mountain Day (IMD) is being celebrated today with a variety of programmes across the world and in Nepal too.

The day is observed annually on December 11 as per the calls of the United Nations to raise awareness about mountain importance, development challenges, and opportunities. This year the day is being commemorated under the theme “Glaciers matter for water, food, and livelihoods in mountains and beyond.”

The day also highlights issues like climate change impacts on glaciers, water security, and sustainable livelihoods in mountainous regions. Various events, webinars, photo contests, social media campaigns and local restoration projects are being carried out under the event.

It may be noted that the United Nations General Assembly had proclaimed 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation to raise awareness on the vital role glaciers, snow and ice play in the climate system and water cycle, as well as the far-reaching impacts of rapid glacial melt.

According to Food and Agriculture Organisation, (FAO), a UN agency, glaciers and ice sheets hold around 70 percent of the world’s freshwater.

Their accelerated melting represents not only an environmental crisis, but a humanitarian one, threatening agriculture, clean energy, water security and billions of peoples’ lives.

Their retreat, driven by rising global temperatures, is a stark indicator of the climate crisis. Melting glaciers and thawing permafrost increase risks such as floods, glacier lake outburst floods, landslides or enhanced erosion and sediment, endangering downstream populations and critical infrastructure.

Economically, sectors like agriculture, hydropower, mountain tourism and transportation feel the strain of glacier changes. For many Indigenous Peoples, glaciers are sacred, and their disappearance signifies a loss of identity and connection to nature.

International Mountain Day is being celebrated since the UN’s 1992 Agenda 21 recognizing mountain ecosystems, leading to 2002 being declared the International Year of Mountains (IMD).

This spurred the UN General Assembly to establish IMD in 2003 to raise awareness about mountains’ crucial role (water, biodiversity, livelihoods) and the threats they face (climate change).
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