India, Oct. 13 -- Just six weeks after the flash floods at the Nepal-Tibet border - leaving over 1,450 people dead and many still missing - the Himalayas groaned again to cause a second surge in river waters in Nepal. The fragility of the mountains, their particular susceptibility to warming, and the resulting vulnerability of human settlements around themwere reiterated in the form of another disaster. This time it was a dry landslide that blocked the Budhi Gandaki River and suddenly gave way, unlike the August disaster triggered by the collapse of an upstream glacier. Understanding the exact triggersof these disasters remains important but addressing factors that exacerbate local warming can no longer wait. Every flood, every landslide is evidence that the Himalayas are under tremendous pressure and that business as usual, or even a gradual approach to reducing risks, simply won't hold. From loweringrisks for glacial melting - forest fires, use of low-efficiency fuels in transport, and biomass burning - to banning unsustainable construction, there ismuch that needs to be done. The disasters may have happened in Nepal, but warming won't spare other Himalayan countries. And there is no guarantee that the infrastructure activity in one jurisdiction won't make a collateral of another. In theory, everyone understands this. India has suffered a series of disasters in the Himalayas in recent years, and glacial melting, particularly, remains a present and future danger, not just for its mountain-states but also for the downstream riparian reaches (in terms of future water availability). The Himalayas have sent out enough warnings about anthropogenic warming and degradation of terrain due to unbridled infrastructure activities ill-suited to it. If the Himalayan nations do not pay immediate attention and act together, an apocalyptic future awaits them all....