Nepal floods: How recent reports warned of this disaster months ago

An area covered in mud and silt washed away by the devastating flash floods in Nepal. (PTI Photo) Months before the devastating floods struck Nepal and Tibet, two landmark reports by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) had warned that rapidly melting glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya(HKH) were escalating the risks of catastrophic floods and other cryosphere-related disasters.Released in March 2026, the reports found that glacier ice loss across the region had doubled since 2000, with the smallest and most vulnerable glaciers shrinking rapidly and intensifying hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods.It also revealed that glaciers have lost up to 27 metres of ice thickness since 1975The warnings have come into sharp focus after a catastrophic flash flood triggered by a glacier collapse struck the Nepal-China border region this week, killing hundreds and leaving nearly 1,000 people missing.Researchers are investigating whether an ice-rock avalanche from a high-altitude location triggered the disaster.ICIMOD cryosphere specialist Mohd Farooq Azam told news agency PTI that the incident involved the detachment of bedrock from beneath a glacier...