Himalayas Under Siege: Flash Floods, Cloudbursts and Climate Change Turn the World’s ‘Third Pole’ Into a Global Warning
The Himalayas, often called the “Third Pole” for their vast reserves of ice and water, are under intensifying siege. On Sunday, flash floods swept through Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district in northern India, blocking the crucial Chandigarh–Manali National Highway at Panarsa, Takoli and Nagwain, stranding travelers and damaging over 20 vehicles; across the state, at least 374 roads were rendered impassable, 524 power transformers snapped, and 145 water schemes disrupted; since June 20, at least 257 people have died in this year’s monsoon across Himachal alone, 133 of them to landslides, flash floods and house collapses.
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| File Photo: Author Saket Suman in Harshil |
What makes the Himalayas uniquely vulnerable is geography itself. Here, narrow valleys, steep slopes and fragile geology meet extreme rainfall, which increasingly comes in the form of cloudbursts -- sudden deluges of over 100 millimeters of rain in less than an hour over compact catchments.
Unlike plains flooding, where water levels may rise gradually, Himalayan floods arrive in violent torrents carrying boulders, mud and glacial melt. In Dharali and Harshil last month, a sudden storm unleashed a wall of water down the Bhagirathi river, washing away homes, roads and fields in minutes.
In Kedarnath in June 2013, a cloudburst combined with a glacial lake outburst to kill thousands of pilgrims and locals, an event that remains one of the deadliest climate-linked disasters in India’s history.
The Himalayas are warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Glaciers retreat each year, destabilizing slopes, while warmer air holds more moisture, fueling more intense rainstorms.
The India Meteorological Department notes a steady rise in “extreme rainfall events” across Himachal and Uttarakhand, with a 20–30% increase compared to past decades. Such extremes are no longer aberrations; they are becoming the norm.
BIG CLIMATE BREAKING
— Ravinder Kapur. (@RavinderKapur2) February 28, 2025
Flood-like situation in Kullu Manali, Himachal Pradesh due to heavy rains.
Due to continuous rains for the last 12 hours, incidents of landslides and glacier breaking have also come to the fore.
Please stay home and stay safe 🙏 pic.twitter.com/CBUYS60u2u
But the story is not confined to India or the Himalayas alone. Around the world, mountain systems and mid-latitude regions are experiencing the same instability. In 2023, northern China’s Beijing region recorded its heaviest rainfall in 140 years, triggering devastating floods.
Italy’s Emilia-Romagna suffered catastrophic flooding after record-breaking downpours, while Greece’s Thessaly region lost dozens to torrents that swept through villages. In the United States, flash floods submerged mountain towns in Vermont the same summer.
These disasters share the same pattern: sudden, intense rainfall, fragile geographies, and human settlements unprepared for extremes amplified by climate change.
The Himalayas, though, carry a special weight. Nearly 1.9 billion people depend directly or indirectly on their rivers, from the Indus to the Ganga to the Brahmaputra. The stakes of their destabilization are not only local but global.
The Dharali and Harshil flood, the Mandi landslides, the Kedarnath tragedy -- each is both a local calamity and a warning flare for the international community.
Part of the crisis lies in how humans have reshaped the Himalayas. Road-widening projects, such as the four-laning of the Chandigarh–Manali highway, involve massive slope cutting, weakening already fragile mountains.
Hydropower tunneling, hotel construction along floodplains, and deforestation have stripped the natural buffers that once absorbed shocks. In Mandi, as in Kullu and Kinnaur, expanding infrastructure has magnified the scale of damage.
A model of development based on cutting deeper into mountain belts now collides with a climate system that punishes every vulnerability.
For locals, these statistics and structural analyses translate into lived dread. In Mandi’s Panarsa, families described vehicles being tossed within minutes as torrents broke through.
In Dharali, residents recounted how the flood arrived so suddenly that homes collapsed before belongings could be gathered. In Kedarnath in 2013, entire settlements vanished under walls of debris before pilgrims even knew danger was near. Each season, mountain households rebuild, only to brace for the next monsoon.
#BREAKING ⚡ Cloud burst on Kedarnath walking path, 150 to 200 pilgrims stranded on the spot.
— jamil malek (@jamilmalek21) July 31, 2024
Water level suddenly increased in Sonprayag river, Mandakini river above danger mark.
Praying for the safety of people stranded over there 🙏🙏#Kedarnath #CloudBurst #Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/i5pBxzgPXT
India’s Supreme Court has long urged restraint in Himalayan development, calling after Kedarnath for a rethink of dam-building and road expansion. Yet, both state and national governments have pressed ahead, citing tourism and national security imperatives along the China border. Climate extremes, however, are rewriting that equation, forcing a balance between infrastructure, growth and survival.
Globally, the Himalayas’ plight resonates with other fragile mountain belts -- from the Andes, where melting glaciers threaten water supplies in Peru and Chile, to the Alps, where floods and landslides are reshaping tourism economies.
The Himalayas are the starkest reminder that when mountains crumble under climate stress, downstream populations pay the price.
The Govt of India deserves credit for the rescue operation but the tunnel in question is absolutely unnecessary. Massive inpouring of tax payers money to pierce this through the heart of the mountain. If only the Govt of India had allocated a fraction of it to study the… https://t.co/NoE5umFQaA pic.twitter.com/rTmu7HWWEc
— Saket Suman (@writesaket) December 23, 2023
This year’s monsoon toll in Himachal -- 257 dead, hundreds of roads destroyed, thousands of livelihoods hit -- is more than a local disaster; it is a climate signal.
The Kedarnath floods were once called a “once-in-a-century” event. But now, with Dharali, with Mandi, with Uttarakhand and Himachal battered each year, the question arises: how many centuries can fit into a single decade?
International forums have begun to note the urgency. The United Nations Secretary-General has called the Himalayas the “barometer of climate change,” warning that what happens here is a preview for the planet.