New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- The Himalayas are changing faster than the infrastructure being built on them. In August, a glacial collapse in Nepal sent water, rock and mud through the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli river system, washing away 11 hydropower stations with 431.1 megawatts (MW) of capacity. Planned capacity of 470MW in another 15 projects was damaged too.

The catastrophe brought together several risks that India's Himalayan hydropower strategy can no longer treat separately-melting glaciers, collapsing ice and rock, glacial-lake outburst floods and extreme rainfall. Himalayan glaciers are losing mass rapidly, with consequences for river flows and hydropower. As glaciers shrink, the risk from lake outbursts and sudden floods increases, alongs...