Nepal Floods: Can India and China Work Together to Protect the Himalayas?

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah spoke at the United Nations General Assembly and warned that the Himalayas are in serious danger from climate change. He said deadly floods that struck Nepal in August showed how urgent the problem has become. Shah then made a surprising proposal: he asked India and China — two countries that often clash — to work with Nepal to protect the mountains. He called the plan the Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism.

The proposal would have the three countries share scientific data, flood warnings, and disaster response plans across their borders. Shah said the mountains should be a place of cooperation, not conflict. 'Let the Himalayas become a laboratory of international co-operation rather than a frontier of fragmented information,' he said. Nepal's foreign ministry said the plan is still in early stages.

Getting India and China to cooperate is very difficult. The two countries share a long border through the Himalayas and have fought over it for decades. Their soldiers have clashed there, and both sides claim land the other controls. Neither country has formally agreed to Shah's proposal so far.

But the climate danger is real and growing. Glaciers in the Himalayan region are melting twice as fast as they were before the year 2000. As the ice melts, large glacial lakes form — and they can burst without much warning. Floods from these lakes can travel across borders and destroy villages, farmland, and roads far downstream.

Landslides and rockfalls are also increasing because of heavier rainstorms. Several major rivers that hundreds of millions of people rely on begin high in the Himalayan mountains. What happens to the ice and water in the mountains affects people across many countries in South and East Asia.

Past attempts at cooperation between India and China have mostly failed. In 2009, they agreed to study glaciers together, but only one meeting was ever held. More recently, agreements to share river flood data collapsed — China stopped sending data on one major river in 2023, and India stopped receiving data on another in 2022. Experts say trust between the two nations remains very low.

One reason sharing data is so hard is that some climate information can also be used by militaries. Maps of rivers, mountain passes, and terrain are valuable for both scientists and soldiers. This makes governments nervous about sharing too much, even when lives could be saved by doing so.

Some experts see small reasons for hope. India and China have recently held high-level talks and discussed reopening trade routes through the mountains. Analysts say this could slowly build enough trust to allow for basic climate cooperation. But most experts warn that real progress will take a long time given how deep the rivalry runs.

Scientists suggest starting with small, practical steps rather than grand agreements. Countries could agree to send each other flood warnings when glacial lakes are about to burst. They could also work together to identify the most dangerous glacial lakes and share simple monitoring data. These steps would not solve every problem, but they could save lives in the short term.

Nepal faces a tough task in convincing India and China to act. Its two neighbors are much larger and more powerful, and their disagreements with each other run deep. But Nepal and other smaller countries in the region have the most to lose if the glaciers keep melting and disasters keep growing. The question is whether shared danger will be enough to bring rivals to the same table.