Plants have begun growing at very high altitudes in the Himalayas, including around Mount Everest, a study has found.

The researchers are seeing plants grow in places where this had never been seen before.

A team analysed satellite data collected from 1993 to 2018. They wanted to look at the zone between where the plant line ends and where the snow cover begins, described as the "subnival zone", where mainly grasses and various shrubs grow.

The findings were published in the journal Global Change Biology.

Team leader Dr Karen Anderson said the trend of more plants growing is most visible at heights of 5,000 to 5,500 metres in the Himalayas.

"Above that, where there is some flatter ground, more plants are also growing, which was not seen even on the steeper slopes below."

The researchers used images taken by NASA's Landsat satellites. They divided the Himalayan region between 4,150 and 6,000 metres into four bands. The study covered various parts of the Hindu Kush Himalaya range, which stretches from Myanmar to eastern Afghanistan.

In the Everest region, plant growth increased markedly in all four altitude bands.

Researchers who work on Himalayan glaciers and water flows also confirmed that plant growth there has increased.

"This is what one would expect to happen in a warmer and wetter climate," said Walter Immerzeel, professor of geoscience at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.