India, Aug. 31 -- In 2023, the South Lhonak glacier disaster in Sikkim, forced India to build a systematic response to Himalayan cryospheric hazards. Some 195 high-altitude lakes across six Himalayan states and Union Territories are now identified and classified by vulnerability, with some level of monthly monitoring in place. This monitoring has centred on glacial lakes - high-altitude water bodies dammed by natural ridges of rock and debris left by retreating glaciers. The August 26 flash flood in Nepal, though, has now brought to the fore a mechanically different threat altogether: hanging glaciers, a mountain-side mass of ice, perched on a slope, collapsing and triggering catastrophic floods.

Research in the months before the Nepal f...