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EYE ON INDIA SEPTEMBER 04, 2026 | The Indian Eye 8

Nepal disaster: Is China’s activity in Tibet

part of the Himalayan problem?

Tibetan Parliament-in-exile Speaker Dolma Tsering Teykhang has specifically called

for an investigation into whether the disaster was entirely natural

OUR BUREAU
NEW DELHI

he scale of the disaster along
the Nepal-Tibet border is so
Textraordinary that questions
about its origins are inevitable. Vil-
lages were swept away, rivers sud-
denly surged and infrastructure on
both sides of the border was de-
stroyed. For Tibetan leaders in exile,
the obvious question is whether this
was simply a natural disaster — or
whether human activity in Tibet may
have contributed to it.
That question deserves investiga-
tion. But it also requires caution.
The emerging scientific evidence
does not currently establish that Chi-
nese construction or other activities NDRF personnel stand in a group photo as they send the 37.5 tonnes of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) material, medi-
in Tibet caused the disaster. Satellite cines & food packets into second flight (IAF’s C-17) for flood-ravaged Nepal, in Ghaziabad on Thursday (ANI Video Grab)
imagery and preliminary scientific
assessments instead indicate that a quires geological evidence, not politi- be more consequential than the ques- What is needed is independent
major glacial collapse or ice-rock ava- cal inference. tion of who caused the collapse. scientific investigation, satellite data,
lanche triggered a chain of events that The preliminary evidence is in- Even if China did nothing to trig- hydrological records and transparent
produced the devastating flash flood. creasingly pointing towards a com- ger the disaster, a lack of adequate up- sharing of information between Nepal
According to Reuters, the low- bination of glacial instability and cli- stream monitoring, information-shar- and China. As Teykhang put it, Nepal
er part of a glacier near Langtang mate change. ing and early-warning mechanisms should have “a very constructive talk
Lirung collapsed, generating an ava- More importantly, the disaster oc- could increase the consequences of with the People’s Republic of China”
lanche of ice and rock and a massive curred in a Himalayan region already future events. Himalayan disasters are to understand what happened at the
debris flow. The collapse was power- undergoing profound climatic change. becoming increasingly transboundary source.
ful enough to register as a magnitude The Hindu Kush Himalaya has expe- in character, and disaster preparedness The tragedy should therefore not
5.2 seismic event. rienced rapid warming, glacier retreat cannot stop at an international border. become an excuse for an unproven
But that does not mean the and degradation of mountain per- There is also a wider lesson for accusation. But neither should the ab-
broader question about human activ- mafrost. Scientists have warned that China’s infrastructure ambitions in sence of definitive evidence become an
ity should be dismissed. warming can destabilise the frozen Tibet. excuse for avoiding difficult questions.
Tibetan Parliament-in-exile material that effectively helps hold Gyaltsen described the disaster as The most credible explanation
Speaker Dolma Tsering Teykhang has steep mountain slopes together. a warning against “mega construction at present is a catastrophic glacial
specifically called for an investigation This makes climate change a or mega projects” in the Himalayan collapse and debris flow, occurring
into whether the disaster was entirely more credible background factor than region, arguing that earthquakes, against the backdrop of a rapidly
natural. “It could be both natural plus any immediate allegation of deliber- landslides and glacier-related disas- warming and increasingly unstable
man-made,” she told ANI, adding ate or negligent Chinese activity. ters create enormous risks. His ar- Himalayan environment.
that if human factors were involved, Yet there is another reason why gument should not automatically be Whether Chinese activity contrib-
there should be “a deep investigation the Tibet question cannot simply be interpreted as proof that Chinese con- uted to the disaster remains a question
of what’s happening in Tibet.” ignored: transboundary water and en- struction caused this particular flood. for scientists, not politicians, to estab-
That is a legitimate question, vironmental security. Tempa Gyaltsen, But it does raise a legitimate policy lish. But one conclusion is already
particularly because the Himalayan an environmentalist and official of the question: how much infrastructure clear: the Himalayas are becoming
environment is extraordinarily sensi- Tibetan government-in-exile, asked can fragile Himalayan ecosystems too environmentally fragile for gov-
tive to large-scale infrastructure and a particularly important question: safely absorb? ernments to treat development, water
rapid environmental change. Roads, “What really caused that enormous China has invested heavily in in- management and disaster prepared-
hydropower projects, tunnels, mining, surge of water suddenly coming frastructure across Tibet, while Nepal ness as separate issues. For Nepal,
dams and other construction can alter through?” He also questioned why itself has pursued hydropower, roads China, India and the wider region,
slopes, drainage patterns and sedi- communities and border personnel and other projects in equally fragile ter- transparency and early-warning coop-
ment flows. But establishing a causal did not receive an earlier warning. rain. The environmental debate there- eration are no longer optional. They
connection to a particular disaster re- The warning issue may ultimately fore cannot be reduced to China alone. are becoming a matter of survival.

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