ADVERTISEMENTStart with a question that sounds like settled fact: how much ice does Kashmir actually hold? We counted 2,096 glaciers spanning the Jhelum, Suru and Chenab basins, covering roughly 3,300 square kilometres. Here’s what surprised people: the Jhelum basin, the part most Kashmiris mean when they say “Kashmir,” contains only 154 of those glaciers and about 86 square kilometres of ice. Kashmir’s water security rides on a genuinely modest ice reserve, and that reserve keeps shrinking. The Pir Panjal range, Kashmir’s southern wall, lost ice nearly five times faster than the basin average, around 1.7 metres a year.