India, Aug. 27 -- Rivers overflowing, infrastructure/highways/bridges collapsing, agricultural tracts inundated, homes and businesses destroyed and pilgrimage routes becoming perilous-the scale of the crisis and damage in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and plains of Punjab is impossible to decipher at this moment but the situation has made one thing clear again-North India's fragile relationship with its mountains, rivers and monsoon and the administration's complete lack of preparedness to handle it.

The death toll in the Vaishno Devi landslide has gone up to 32 with rescuers pulling out more bodies from under the debris a day after disaster struck the route to the hilltop shrine in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi distric...