Effects Of Himalayan Glacial Melt

Yet people living elsewhere are likely to see food productivity increase, they added in a paper published in Science.

Overall, the food security of 4.5% of 1.4bn people in the region is threatened, the researchers conclude.

More than 1.4bn people depend on water from the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

"We show that meltwater is extremely important in the Indus basin and important for the Brahmanputra basin, but only plays a modest role for the Ganges, Yangtze and Yellow rivers," the team from the Netherlands wrote. Read the full report here.

Source: Mark Kinver, Science and environment reporter, BBC News