Context: Researchers led by the University of Maine found that the South Col Glacier has lost more than 180ft (54m) of thickness in the last 25 years.

Key Findings

• Climate change is causing the highest glacier on Mount Everest to melt at a rapid pace.
• They also noted that the glacier's thick snowpack has been eroded, exposing the underlying black ice to the sun and accelerating the melting process.

Impact of such melting

• Around one billion people depend on the Himalayan mountain range for drinking water, and if other glaciers in the region - and worldwide - follow Everest's example, their capacity to provide water for drinking and irrigation could fall significantly.
• The decline could also provide a challenge for climbers, as future expeditions to the mountain could face more exposed bedrock and ice cover, making it more difficult to climb.

Mount Everest

• It is the tallest mountain on the land (around 8,848 meters), located in Nepal.
• It is also called as Sagarmatha.
• Geographically, Mt. Everest is part of the Mahalangur Himal.
• Mahalangur Himal is a sub-range of the Himalayas, located on the border of northeastern Nepal and south-central Tibet of China.
• Like the Himalayas, Mt. Everest was also formed through plate tectonic smashup between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
• Mt. Everest got its name from Sir George Everest, a colonial-era geographer who served as the Surveyor General of India in the mid-19th century.

Climbing Mt. Everest

• Climbing routes: from the southeast in Nepal (known as the "standard route") or from the north in Tibet.

History of Climbing

• 1st ever Mt. Everest climber: Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (1953)
• Avtar Singh Cheema (1965) was the first Indian man to climb Everest.
• Bachendri Pal (1984) was the First Indian woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.