6 min readAug 28, 2026 01:51 PM IST
First published on: Aug 28, 2026 at 01:49 PM IST
As a frequent visitor to the Himalayas in India, Nepal and Bhutan over four decades, I have witnessed the relentless spoliation of this majestic but fragile mountain zone. The eternal is becoming episodic as the snows covering the high peaks melt at an accelerated pace from global warming, exacerbated by indiscriminate ecological degradation. Despite persistent and alarming warning signs, human greed and cupidity have continued to provoke the fury of the mountains, visiting death and destruction on communities residing in their valleys and along river banks.
Nepal is the latest victim of catastrophic flash floods, sweeping down from mountains just across the border with Tibet, caused by what is technically termed a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). A mountain river upstream may be blocked by a portion of a glacier breaking away or by an avalanche, thereby forming a lake. When the loose banks of this lake burst under pressure, then a huge volume of water hurtles downstream. It is reported that about 20 km east of the Rasuwagadhi Nepal-Tibet border crossing, a massive avalanche brought surging waters and sheets of mud down the Lhende River, sweeping away villages, settlements, and a large number of people downstream. The avalanche may have been triggered by a 4.4 magnitude earthquake recorded in the area just minutes earlier.
The border crossing connects Nepal’s Rasuwa district with Gyirong county on the Tibetan side. Chinese media report similar loss of life and property across the border. The flash floods spread south from Rasuwa to Dhading, Gorkha and Nuwakot districts in Nepal, and the impact will be felt across the border in India. At least six hydropower projects downstream have been wiped out, causing a loss of 405 MW of power capacity, constituting 12 per cent of the national total. This is a loss of power that Nepal can ill afford. Recovery and rehabilitation may take several years. Some of the video reports on this Himalayan tsunami are most disturbing to watch. One sees a huge wall of water and mud tossing aside buildings, cars and frightened people with an elemental fury — a reminder once again how utterly defenceless humanity can be before the raw power of nature.
Rasuwagadhi is the most important border crossing between Nepal and Tibet for trade as well as tourism, including for pilgrim tours to the holy Kailash-Mansarovar. It is reported that over 160 Indian pilgrims are missing. The hotels and guest houses in which they were staying were washed away in the flood. Cross-border trade and traffic are likely to remain suspended for the foreseeable future.
India has been quick to respond to the disaster in a friendly neighbouring country, sending urgent medical and food supplies and specialised rescue teams.
There are 48,000 sq km of glaciers spread over the Himalaya. Another 18,000 sq km are located in the Karakoram. Researchers have mapped over 5,000 glacial lakes in the Himalaya, of which about 500 are classified as “hazardous” or “significantly hazardous”. There have been at least 388 recorded instances of GLOF so far in the Himalaya-Karakoram mountains but their frequency has been increasing in recent years.
In August 2025, there was a GLOF event in Dharali in Uttarakhand on the route to Gangotri, which caused large-scale loss of life and property. One should also recall the 2013 Kedarnath flash flood caused by a combination of torrential rains and a GLOF at the Chorabari lake to the north. The surge of flood waters and debris washed away towns and settlements along the highway to Gangotri. In the immediate aftermath, there was talk of how the human carrying capacity of these remote pilgrimage places should be assessed and strictly observed. No construction 500 metres from the river banks was to be permitted hereafter. But no lessons have been learnt.
Hotels and guest houses have mushroomed once again on the river banks. During the pilgrimage season, Kedarnath may have a daily turnover of 15-20,000 pilgrims. Even at 18,000 feet elevation, there are pre-fab guest houses, restaurants and dhabas with cylinder gas being transported back and forth for heating and cooking. There are no proper arrangements for waste management. The Uttarakhand government is reportedly considering making Badrinath and Kedarnath open for pilgrimage the whole year round.
Hydropower development continues apace in the Himalayas despite the risk of GLOF and earthquakes. This is known to be an active seismic zone. In October 2023, a GLOF from the South Lhonak lake in Sikkim completely washed away the 1200 MW Teesta-III hydropower dam and power station. Earlier in 2021, a sudden flash flood triggered by a glacial collapse in Chamoli in Uttarakhand wiped out the Rishiganga Hydropower project and blocked the associated Chamoli tunnel.
Despite this mounting and compelling evidence, major hydropower projects continue to be pursued across the mountain zone, creating mounting risks to life and property. But these are being cynically ignored.
There are several rivers that rise from the Tibetan plateau and flow through Nepal and India. There have been flash floods on some cross-border rivers that have caused large-scale damage on the Indian side.
The sharing of information and early warning between India and China has never been regular and has been subject to the state of their political relations. We now have, potentially, an even greater threat facing India from across the border with Tibet. China has begun constructing the gigantic Medog dam at the great bend of the Brahmaputra river just across the border. It is slated to deliver 300 billion kWh of power annually and will be several times larger than the largest hydro project in existence anywhere in the world, the Gezhouba on the Yangzi river, which is rated at 15.6 billion kWh of power annually. Chinese scientists have warned that the project sits very close to the Paizhen Fault, a major fracture in the Earth’s crust, making it vulnerable to seismic events. Should there be a major earthquake in the project vicinity, there could be a massive discharge of flood waters and debris into India’s Northeast.
The Himalayan glaciers have been a source of life-sustaining rivers for the entire Indo-Gangetic plain, populated by over 500 million people. It is this life-source that we are despoiling and for which our succeeding generations will pay the price. The mountains have sounded a loud warning of a cataclysm that lies round the corner. We ignore it at our collective peril.
The writer is a former Foreign Secretary and was Ambassador to Nepal 2002-04
Nepal is the latest victim of catastrophic flash floods, sweeping down from mountains just across the border with Tibet, caused by what is technically termed a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). 
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