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.
For the first time in two decades, the number of children being put to work has risen to 160 million worldwide, representing an increase of 8.4 million over four years, while millions of others are at risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new UN report launched on Thursday
A group of UN independent human rights experts called on Wednesday for the leaders of the world’s largest economies to ensure equal access to COVID-19 vaccines for people in the Global South, urging them not to allow the profit motive to undermine global health and equity
Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid, the president-elect of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, has appointed India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu as his Chef de Cabinet
UNICEF has expressed deep concern over the death of three children, age 10 to 16, who were reported killed in the detonation of a landmine in South Waziristan, one of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Merged Districts (KPMD) along the Afghan border, on Tuesday
From David Beckham to Whoopi Goldberg and Angelique Kidjo, Ambassadors for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other agencies, have signed an open letter to the upcoming G7 Summit of world leaders, underscoring the urgency of supplying vaccine donations now
Ending the “war on nature” must be part of global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday in his message for World Oceans Day
Even though COVID-19 cases and deaths have declined in recent weeks, the world is facing a “two-track pandemic”, the UN’s top health official said on Monday in his ongoing campaign to get more vaccines to developing countries
During the last decade, more people around the world have gained access to electricity than ever before
The UN Security Council on Tuesday recommended Antonio Guterres, who is running unopposed, for a second term as the Secretary-General ensuring his re-election
In an electoral battle of two South Asian countries, Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has defeated Afghanistan's nominee to become the next president of the UN General Assembly
United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) president-designate Alok Sharma has highlighted the importance of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest spread over neighboring nations India and Bangladesh, saying it plays a significant role as a carbon sink
Heads of Government, religious leaders, activists and artists joined the United Nations on Friday in a rallying cry to heal the planet, launching the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
Some two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed globally but only 0.5 per cent have reached low-income countries where frontline health workers and the elderly have yet to receive a shot, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday
A high-level UN delegation, which had recently visited Bangladesh, appreciated PM Sheikh Hasina-led government over the Bhasan Char rehabilitation project of the Rohingyas and sought the international community's support to ensure the refugees live there with dignity
With factors contributing to transnational corruption becoming increasingly complex, the UN launched an initiative on Thursday to “empower all countries” to find practical solutions and better tools to track, investigate and prosecute the scourge
