For decades, India’s diplomatic relationship with Nepal during natural calamities followed a well-known script. When cloudbursts, landslides, or flash floods devastated the Himalayan nation, New Delhi deployed National Disaster Response Force teams, airlifted emergency supplies, and offered generous reconstruction grants. India acted as a friendly “First Responder”.

However, recent catastrophic flash floods across Nepal’s Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river basins—dubbed a “Himalayan Tsunami” after destroying settlements, highways, and hydropower infrastructure—have altered this paradigm. Moving away from a paradigm of charity and ad-hoc relief, Nepal’s leadership has explicitly pivoted to a framework of climate justice and financial liability. Kathmandu has formally appealed to the UN-backed Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) while calling on developed countries to deliver compensation and concessional climate finance, and pressing regional neighbours, including China and India, for cooperation on preparedness, data sharing and resilience. Kathmandu has clarified that it is not seeking damages from any single country, but the expectation placed on its neighbours is unmistakable. Prime Minister Balendra Shah will take this case to the UN General Assembly on September 24, where Nepal is hosting a side event on Himalayan climate risk, before the issue moves to COP31 in Antalya in November.

This shift presents India with a delicate strategic and geopolitical dilemma. As a leading voice of the Global South, India has historically argued that historical emitters in the Global North carry sole responsibility for funding climate Loss and Damage. Yet, as a rising regional power whose emissions footprint and infrastructure investments are intertwined with the fragile ecology of the Third Pole, India can no longer depend on global multilateral support........

© Indian Express