The country's glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate, threatening the livelihoods of Chinese dependent on the water they provide, the China Daily said, citing local experts.

"Glaciers are much more than scenic gifts from nature," the paper said. "They allow room for bio-diversity and are a crucial source of water by storing snow in the winters and releasing water in hot dry summers."

As many as 64 percent of China's glaciers may be gone by 2050, said Yao Tandong, director of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This sounds the alarm bells for the 23 percent of the country's 1.3 billion people living in oases in western China, Yao warned.

Desertification, already among China's top environmental worries, could become even worse, he said.

The looming crisis has been highlighted by the dramatic shrinkage of the Yulong Snow Mountain glacier in southwestern Yunnan province, the paper said.

Over the past two decades, its main component, the Baishui No. 1 Glacier, has receded 250 meters (830 feet), according to the report.

If the Yulong Snow Mountain glacier is indeed shrinking at an ever faster rate, the same is likely to be the case for China's other glaciers, said He Yuanqing, a researcher at the institute.

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