The devastating disaster in late August 2026, triggered by an ice-rock occurrence near the Nepal-Tibet border, has taken 1,300 lives, with more than 5,500 still missing, with hopes of their survival even after two weeks-long rescue operations.
Pakistan is most vulnerable to climate change; not far away, China and Nepal have gone through a horrible flood, taking many lives and displacing about 6000 people. It is an alarming situation for Pakistan, which is already dealing with the situation on a yearly basis. The catastrophe was likely the result of an accumulation of factors, including rising temperatures and accelerated glacier melt and retreat, local geological and geomorphologic conditions, and broader climatic influences, as climate experts calculated.
As said by Sun Xiaoguang, head of the Meteorological Observatory of the Tibet Autonomous Region, “The climate experts of China explained that, ‘According to our monitoring, we can see the short-time rain days, or the imbalance of the rain pattern and the rising of the temperature in Tibet,”
The “Bhotekoshi River” caused devastating flooding in northern and central Nepal, which killed more than 1,350 people, while about 6,000 remain missing. Same like on the Chinese side, the flash flood has killed 43 people, while 519 remain missing, according to authorities. The force of the landslide, comprising huge rocks, ice, and massive amounts of clay, wiped out the sprawling Chinese immigration centre building at “Gyirong”.
“Nie Yong”, a climate researcher at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment of China, said there are now more than 14,000 glacial lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, covering a combined area of more than 1,100 square kilometres, with many continuing to expand. The entire area covered by glacial lakes in the region is increasing by an average of about 1% a year.
“Kang Shichang”, director and researcher at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Chengdu, said glaciers across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau had shrunk by about 24% in area over the past six decades.
