The Dharali and Kishtwar tragedies must not fade into another chapter of ignored warnings. A dedicated climate and disaster-resilience policy for the Himalayan states is an urgent necessity. Inaction will result in loss of lives in the hills, and water insecurity, energy disruptions, and ecological collapse across the plains

The monsoon, once a season of renewal for India’s farms and forests, has become a season of dread in the Himalayas. On August 5, 2025, a catastrophic cloudburst struck Dharali village in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, unleashing flash floods and landslides that swept away homes, roads, and lives. Before the region could recover, Kishtwar, Jammu & Kashmir, was struck by another tragedy, as a cloudburst claimed several lives, left over 200 missing, and crippled vital bridges and highways.

These disasters were not isolated. In just one intense weekend this monsoon, Himachal Pradesh recorded 19 cloudbursts, 23 flash floods, and 16 major landslides, displacing thousands. From Kinnaur and Kullu to Chamoli and Rudraprayag, the pattern is clear: Intense rainfall events, cloudbursts, river overflows, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are no longer rare shocks — they are becoming seasonal certainties.

A Fragile Region Under Siege

The Himalayas have always been geologically young and fragile, prone to landslides, earthquakes, and floods. But in recent decades, the frequency, intensity, and destructiveness of these hazards have risen sharply. Warmer temperatures, shifting monsoon patterns, and rapid glacier melt are amplifying the risks.

The 2013 Kedarnath disaster was a grim warning. As Executive Director of the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), I led the post-disaster field assessment that identified both natural and human-induced drivers of the tragedy.

Why disasters in the Himalayas are becoming more deadly?

While heavy rainfall and sudden cloudbursts are natural to mountainous regions, the calamities we see today are progressively shaped by human choices. Climate change is accelerating the melting of glaciers, destabilising terrain, and raising the risk of glacial lake outburst floods. Simultaneously, spontaneous urbanisation has replaced conventional buildings with........

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