A genuinely regional approach could eventually include - besides Nepal, China and India - Bhutan and, where relevant, downstream institutions in Bangladesh. Organisations with established Himalayan expertise, particularly the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, could offer scientific and institutional support.
The Himalayas are not collapsing because humanity exists, but humanity is creating a warmer world in which the Himalayas are becoming less predictable. The real question is no longer whether climate change will alter the mountains. It already is.
My eldest aunt was swept away. So was her son, my dai Madhu, and his wife. My other aunt — gone too, they told me. Her grandson Sijan and his wife, caught in the same water. His own son and daughter-in-law, unreachable, unaccounted for. My maternal uncle had gone out that morning to cut grass for the cattle. He never came back.
No technology can stop an avalanche. But the tragedy of events like Wednesday's is that the fatal interval between the trigger high in the mountains and the flood wave reaching villages downstream is often 20 minutes to a few hours. That window is exactly where artificial intelligence, coupled with sensors and satellites, earns its keep.
Twelve rights groups, including Amnesty International, had privately written to the United Nations (UN) two months ago seeking a ban on the deployment of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite paramilitary force, in UN peacekeeping missions
The era of classifying terrorists as "your terrorist" and "my terrorist" was over, said India
The Taliban through a “wave of measures” are attempting to “erase" women and girls from public life, UN rights experts have said, highlighting what they call “collective punishment” of women by enforcing "gender-biased and harmful" policies
A United Nations report said on Thursday that the deadly wave of Covid-19 Delta variant led to the loss of 240,000 lives in India in three months between April and June in 2021 and disrupted economic recovery, and warned that “similar episodes” could take place in the near term
"Freezing temperature and frozen assets" are a “lethal combination" for the people of Afghanistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, warning millions in the country are on the “verge of death” and requesting for the release of frozen assets to avert a complete collapse
“India's recovery is on a solid path,” the UN said on Thursday, reporting that the country recorded the highest estimated growth rate among the major economies last year and is set to be on the same trajectory during this year and the next
The Taliban has suggested the formation of joint teams, including their own officials, to the United Nations' agencies for the distribution of billions of dollars of aid that foreign governments are planning to send in Afghanistan to steeve off the escalating humanitarian crisis
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, Wednesday condemned the surfacing of a hate app in India on which doctored photographs of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded for “auction” and said such incidents need to be prosecuted as soon as they occur
The United Nations (UN) has been seeking $5 billion in aid for Afghans —the largest so far for any aid program in UN history—as the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s takeover, now threatens the entire population
TS Tirumurti, India's permanent representative to the United Nations, was named the new Chair of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) on Tuesday
India on Wednesday voted in favour of a UN Security Council resolution to grant exemption from sanctions for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, even as it stressed that the assistance should be without any hindrance
The United Nations is proposing paying the Taliban - under UN sanctions for terrorist activities - almost $6 million to subsidize the wages of its fighters who are guarding United Nations facilities
The people of Afghanistan are facing a profound humanitarian crisis that threatens the most basic of human rights, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) warned on Tuesday
India has opposed a UN Security Council draft resolution on climate change, saying that attempts to link climate with security seek to obfuscate the lack of progress on critical issues under the UNFCCC process
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rohingya crisis Tom Andrews began a week-long visit to Bangladesh on Monday, saying "the world must not forget the roughly one million Rohingya from Myanmar"
