A novel study has raised concerns about shrinkage of glaciers that may fuel future conflicts. Glaciers in Asia's Tian Shan Mountains have already been losing a lot of ice. By 2050, half of the remaining ice from Tian Shan glaciers could be lost, leading to declined water supplies in central Asia and fuel conflicts there.

The Tian Shan mountain range stretches across 1,550 miles of central Asia. Melting snow and glaciers from these mountains provide water to the lowlands of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It also provides water to China's northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.

Study's lead researcher Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at the German Research Center for Geosciences and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, said if water supply will decline in these regions then it will be a matter of concern.

The researchers have assessed data from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE), a satellite, and NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). Computer models were also developed of the glaciers. Information was taken on field observations from snow pits and readings were taken from glacier surfaces.

These processes led the research know how glaciers in that region have changed in mass from 1961 to 2012. As per the data, the region's glaciers have reduced at the rapid rate of around 5.4 billion tons per year on an average. Computer models suggested that summer temperature will continue to increase in the coming decades.