Behind the frequent floods in Pakistan: melting of the ice rivers, exhausted forests Flood news

It was a routine day, and Monzer Mahdi, 26, had performed his prayers in the middle of the afternoon. Then, after lunch, the mountains started wasted.

Al-Khayyat, who lived in the village of Chigjrung on Siachen Glacier-was the second largest non-polar ice river in the world-he knew what to do: running.

Mahdi, his wife and their two children had to escape from their home in late July after a ice harbinated that led to a shore of a lake. He said: “We have known what will come because of the high rock boxes, and the water stream stopped.” “We had enough time to reach a higher height and save ourselves, but all our life savings, home, livestock, everything went, erased at a few moments.”

Mahdi and his family marched nearly 100 km (60 miles) to the next village and from there riding a car to reach Scardo, the largest city in the region.

Their stories are one of the many similar stories that have appeared in the last weeks of Gilgit-Paltistan, part of Kashmir run by Pakistan where the floods were flooded entire villages, especially in the GHIZER region.

Pakistan is facing many climate emergencies – its forests shrink, the melting of ice rivers faster than expected, and now catastrophic rains are destructive societies.

The removal of the rampant forests from natural temporary warehouses is eroded, while mountainous temperatures are weakened by ice rivers, destabilizing the landscape and exposing people to landslides and floods.

The illegal river was astonished to ban the GHIZER River, and the population living near the river bank was placed at risk, and the people who were cut off in the floods were able to cross the damaged village of Talidas in the floods. pic.twitter.com/fsybvdxl8f

– Gamil Nagri (@jamilnagri) August 22, 2025

These crossed threats have collided this year, as they criticized the rainy winds and rare cloud regions northern regions such as Khyber Bakhtonguhu and Kashmir, which is run by Pakistan.

Then the water was pushed towards the course of the river, which created chaos in other parts of Pakistan – the damages that amplified by building residential communities near the banks of the river and on the plains of flooding in recent decades.

In the monsoon this year, since June 26, at least 804 people died, the majority of them in Khaybar Bakhtongua.

What happens to the ice rivers in Pakistan?

A study conducted by Evk2cnr, an Italian non -profit organization that focuses on scientific research in high mountain environments, revealed in 2024 that Pakistan is home to 13,032 Glir, which covers ice gels 13546.93 square kilometers (5,230 square miles) via Gilgit basins, Gilom, Kabul, Kabul.

Pakistan has the largest size of ice ice for any country outside the polar areas.

Frankly, the meeting point lies three main mountain ranges, Hindus Kush, Himayalas and Karokaram in Kashmir, Pakistan Managers.

Ice ice is also a 220 million people’s Ice ice.

The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a union of regional countries that extend to the chains of the Hindu mountain and the Himalaya cells, conducted a study indicating that Hindu Kush and ice ice ice disappeared 65 percent faster in the period 2011-2020 than the previous decade.

According to Zakir Hussein Zakir, Director of Planning and Development at the University of Baltistan, the melting rate ranges between 10 and 30 meters (33-100 feet) per year in the Himalayas Mountains, 5 to 10 meters (16-33 feet) in Hindo Kush, and 2-3 meters (7-10 feet) in carcar. Ice ice melts faster than the new snow can renew, as the summer increases.

“The fusion has accelerated due to global warming, as Pakistan remains a small contributor,” says Hyde Pot Roundabout, the main adviser to the Climate Movement in Pakistan.

This warming was placed in a dangerous movement: the highest temperatures accelerate the melting of icy rivers, which reveal the dark rock surfaces.

He said: “These surfaces, in turn, absorb more heat, which increases the speed of melting.

Zakir Hussein, Director General of the Regional Disaster Management Authority in Kashmir, which is run by Pakistan (Gilgit in Pastue)-has nothing to do with the University of Baltistan Academic-The effect of carbon emissions can be seen in real time.

“Our elders used to say, in our traditional ways, that by 15 August, the ice rivers will stop and snow will start packing. Now, because of climate change, the ice rivers melt faster and longer.”

For decades, the valley societies have formed their practices about the expectation of stable glaciers, but this assumption is no longer reliable. The fastest movement of glaciers reduces the rock terrain around them, which increases the risk of landslides on a large scale.

Zakir of the University of Baltistan says that increasing tourism and construction contributed to the melting of the iceberg: since 2005, when the Scardo runway was expanded, large planes managed to transport travelers to the area daily. The International Airlines in Pakistan, the Pakistani International Airlines, has previously relied on the smaller Fakar aircraft for daily flights to Gilgit, if the weather allows.

“Increased air traffic in the region is a major cause of dissolving icebergs,” said Zacker.

Hussein refutes this PDMA and says: “There is no industry in Gilgit-Baltistan; we produce slim or non-carbon emissions and we are at the end of it.”

What happens to Pakistan’s forests?

Pakistan’s terrain extends over high mountains, fertile plains, deserts and river valleys, with sharp contradictions between arid and blasphemy.

According to the European Space Agency Worldcover, about 2.72 percent of the lands are covered with snow and ice, which is the largest concentration outside the polar areas. These ice rivers feed the Sindhth River system, which supports nearly 90 percent of the country’s agriculture.

Forests cover only 5.23 percent of land, providing limited protection against corrosion and floods.

The monsoon winds provide nearly three -quarters of the annual rains of South Asia, which is vital to Pakistan crops. But over the past decade, Cloudbursts and Haiver Rains have sparked flashing floods and landslides with an increase in pace.

According to Global Forest Watch, a digital for forest control platform, from 2001 to 2024, Pakistan lost 95.3 square meters (9.53 kilograms of hectares) of the forest cover – almost half of the region of Islamabad, the country’s capital.

Why are trees cut?

According to Global Forest Watch, Pakistan is losing tree cover due to both forests and temporary disorders.

From 2001 to 2024, Pakistan lost nearly 8 percent of the cover cover.

At least 78 % (6,870 hectares) of losing trees coverage due to cutting trees, followed by forest fires, by 12 % (1080 hectares), permanent agriculture (492 hectares), and temporary disorders such as natural disasters (184 hectares) and new and external settlements (179 hectares).

Ahmed Kamal, Secretary of the Additional Administration for the Department of Forestry in Khaybar-Bakhtongua, says the boycott forests have been a victim of government policies.

Until the nineties of the last century, Khaybar Bakhtongua allowed a practice known as the “scientific harvest” – which included selective pieces of old or sick trees until the forests were renewed. However, in allegations that the wood mafia, in collusion with the officials of the Ministry of Forests, was offending the use of the system, the federal government imposed a comprehensive ban on cutting trees.

This, Kamal said, “Instead, pushing illegal trees and aggravating the removal of forests.”

According to Kamal, the prohibition imposed by the state has damaged the societies dependent on the forests, which is entitled to obtain 40-80 percent of royalties from the legal harvest. Many of income have turned into illegal trees, and they often cut small trees.

This was eaten in Diodar’s value reserves in Pakistan. Deodar is famous for its fragrance and durability. Wood contains insect engraved and anti -bacterial properties, which are valuable for medical extract and essential oils.

But Adel Zariv, the regulator of the SCN, a non -governmental organization, says in practice, a temporary government, Hikmat Khyber Bakhtongua from January 2023 to March 2024 by handing it over as known as “Gosara Forests” to real estate developers. The priest of the assault was in his position after dissolving the regional association. Gosera forests are managed by local tribes or individuals who have traditional rights on the ground, and forest administration.

Pakistan told Pakistan the island that the removal of forests was creating “irreplaceable water flow conditions, leaving the structures and societies amazing.”

In the areas of Khyber Bakhtongua, such as Bonner and Swapi, the circular fell more than 150 mm (6 inches) of rain in one hour, which led to flash floods and ground collapses that destroyed the infrastructure and washed out of entire villages.

Does this affect other parts of Pakistan?

While the flood water sneaks in the direction of the river, it combines unprecedented rains in the north of Punjab to immerse the heart of the Pakistani artificial belt. For example, Salkot City in Punjab, with more than 360 mm of rain, was exposed to 24 hours on Wednesday, and broke a record for 49 years, according to the Pakistani Ministry of Meteorological (PMD).

About 75 km (50 miles), Carterpower Gordra, the distinguished, with a corridor of Sikh pilgrims from India, stood completely overwhelmed on Wednesday. Pakistani officials accused India of exacerbating the floods by issuing torrents of water from the edges dams, but India refused the charge, on the pretext that it was only following regular release practices.

Indian aggression strongly condemned. Under the plot, suddenly a huge amount of water launched in rivers by India, which led to severe floods in Pakistan. The entire Cartarbur region was flooded. The land of Guru Nanak is completely underwater. pic.twitter.com/weqvr7stsx

– Keshoobai August 27, 2025

With the arrival of dams and tanks limited in Pakistan, also, to a complete ability, the risk of more floods, destruction and damage continues. The seasonal winds are not over – no is their destruction.

Additional reports from Peshawar by Ghulam Dastagir