Why is the Himalayan region so vulnerable to floods? Why does this keep happening?
If you think flooding only occurs in low-lying areas, think again. Sea level rise isn’t the only threat posed by global warming. Up in the high mountains, there’s another major concern: glacier melt.
In the Himalayan mountains, snow is a common sight at higher altitudes. When snow falls and accumulates on land over many many years, it gets compressed into ice. Usually, the tops of the mountains have lower temperatures, so there is more snowfall that builds up along the ice. But as you go downhill, the temperature increases, causing the snow and ice to melt. This causes the massive body of ice to ‘flow’, albeit very slowly, due to gravity, and it gathers and pulls along more snow, rocks, sediments, and everything else in its path. This flowing mass of ice is what we call glaciers.
One remarkable thing about nature is that every element plays a specific role. In the case of glaciers, they serve as the source of many life-sustaining rivers.
The Indian Himalayas alone host nearly 10,000 glaciers, forming the largest concentration of fresh water outside the polar regions (that is why we also call it “the third pole”). The summer melt off these glaciers, along with snowmelt and runoff, feeds major river systems such as the Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra, ensuring a steady water supply for millions of people. Any disruption to this system has serious consequences for agriculture, industry, and domestic water use across northern India.
Global warming changes the picture in the following ways:
– Glacier melting
– Glacier thinning and instability
– Shifting from snow to rain
– Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs)
Rapid glacier melt, intensified by heavier rainfall, causes glacial lakes to expand, creating a natural dam. When these dams, composed of rocks or moraines, can no longer hold the increasing water pressure, they may give way, resulting in floods can be catastrophic. The Kedarnath disaster in 2013 was a tragic example. And now the catastrophe at the Nepal/Tibet/China bridge.
If we truly want to prevent these disasters from happening in the first place, the answer lies in at least slowing down global warming. The real question is, are we doing enough to make that happen?
This applies to the over-tourism in Kodagu – uncontrolled, indisciplined, lack of infrastructure combined with demographic changes in land ownership. – CLN Team
As the frothing white dragon ,
Came roaring down the mountains,
Tearing through the valleys on,
It’s charge towards the plains,
Caring nought upon it’s course,
A raging torrent of rock and ice,
Blasting with Tsunami force,
Annihilating love and life.
Swirling serpentine demon of death,
Striking with frightening velocity,
Smashing,ripping and uprooting,
With savage, demonic ferocity.
Born to stillness and silence,
This placid glacial child,
Toppled down and then mutated into,
A tempestuous tide so wild.
All placid again as waters subside,
The dragon, it’s fury now spent,
Vanished as if it never existed,
Death and destruction a mute testament.
Broken lives, bloated dead,
Battered towns and ruins stand,
Filled with empty eyes on empty bellies,
All across the desolate wasteland.
And yet from amidst the carnage,
Arise those valiant rescue teams,
Pushing through risk and extreme,
True panacea for shattered dreams.
Dreams shattered by nature’s whims,
Damned by dams of dragon’s whims,
Relief refused for political whims,
The innocent die victims of whims.
Dr. Ravin Chengappa, August 2026, Very far away from Nepal.
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