Up to 70 percent of the Ganges' water during summer comes from run-off from Himalayan glaciers. Those glaciers are shrinking by about 40 yards a year, which scientists say is about twice as fast as 20 years ago, The Washington Post reported on its Web site Saturday.

For Hindus, who number 800 million in India, the Ganges is a source of healing they refer to as Ganga Ma.

"Ganga Ma is everything to Hindus," says one believer who goes by the single name Ramedi. "It's our chance to attain nirvana."

Veer Bhadra Mishra, director of the Sankat Mochan Foundation, which advocates for the preservation of the more than 1,500-mile river, calls the glaciers' melting "a terrible thing."

"This may be the first place on Earth where global warming could hurt our very religion," Mishara said. "We are becoming an endangered species of Hindus."

A United Nations climate report says the glaciers could disappear by 2030 as temperatures rise. The World Wildlife Fund says the Ganges is among the world's most endangered rivers.