Nepal’s agony, the Himalayan warning to India
The author argues that the Himalayan region is a single, interconnected geological entity prone to seismic activity and climate-induced disasters. It calls for India to improve its disaster preparedness and warning systems in light of the increasing risks posed by glacial lake outburst floods and earthquakes.
Why it matters
The piece addresses the urgent need for trans-boundary cooperation and climate adaptation strategies in the vulnerable Himalayan region.
Will it let Nepal speak to India through its agony what India has refused to hear ?
The Himalaya are not a series of silos — Afghanistan Hindu Kush Himalaya, Pakistan Himalaya, Indian Himalaya, Nepal Himalaya, the Himalaya in Tibet-China, Bhutan. To employ a powerful term I have heard Vadodara-based painter Gulam Mohammed Sheikh use for the Elephanta Caves, the Himalaya are one living rock, silently, broodingly, tense with seismic voltages, glacial stirrings and geological turbulence.
And they spell their uncoded thought in swipes no one can foretell. When, where exactly, with what ferocity, no one knows. And what disasters may radiate from them — through rivers plucked from their courses, rockfalls and landslides depositing mud and silt, turning human habitations into rubble and fertile farms into slime — no one can precisely envision.
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