An avalanche on Mt Manaslu in Gorkha district on Sunday morning crashed into the Birendra lake, setting off flash floods downstream. The details of resulting losses have yet to be received, but reports said a wooden bridge that connected Samdu and Samagaun villages was swept away by the flood.

Following the incident, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an alert asking people downstream and those living near the Budhi Gandaki River to take precautions, as floods could cause damage.

“Snow and debris from the avalanche that fell into the lake caused flash floods,” said Nima Lama, chairman of Chumnubri Rural Municipality of Gorkha district. “Although the effects of the avalanche and the flash flood are not very significant, the incident alerted the locals to the risk of living in mountainous areas.”

Avalanches and flash floods have become more frequent in recent years in the mountainous areas due to climate change. At least four incidents of avalanche have been recorded in Nepal since 2023, killing and injuring many people.

Nepal is one of the countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis in the world and has witnessed extreme weather events over the past decade and a half.

Evidence suggests that the maximum temperature in Nepal is rising at a greater rate (0.05 degrees Celsius per year) than the global average of 0.03 degrees Celsius per year.

Studies show rising global temperatures are likely to accelerate evaporation rates worldwide, leading to even more rain. Moreover, as a result of a warming climate, more clouds form and cross mountains.

Hilly areas in the country have been witnessing more incidents of landslides. Scores of people throughout the country get killed and injured in the floods and landslide incidents every year.

In August last year, Kagbeni area of Mustang, a mountainous district, witnessed a massive flood triggered by extremely heavy rainfall, which swept away around three dozen houses and displaced more than 150 people.

The same year, landslide debris blocked the diversion tunnel of the Arun III Hydropower Project in Sankhuwasabha district.

At least three persons died and 18 others went missing in flood in the Panchkhapan Municipality of Sankhuwasabha district in June, the same year. Most of the deceased and the missing were labourers, working on hydropower projects being built on the local Hewa Khola river.

At least 30 hydropower projects in eastern Nepal suffered damage estimated at around Rs8.5 billion due to floods and landslides in the first spell of the monsoon.

Apart from widespread damage to roads, bridges, and public property, hydropower projects (both in operation and under construction) in the floods- and landslide-hit districts of Koshi Province—Sankhuwasabha, Panchthar, Bhojpur and Taplejung—incurred massive damage.

A 2018 study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters warned that there is a limit to hydropower expansion in the Himalayas, as extreme climate events and disasters in the country become deadlier and more frequent.

The 2021 flooding in another mountain district of Manang, the devastation caused by the flooding in the Melamchi river in Sindhupalchok district are some other major incidents, which caused massive damage. While the mountainous and hilly regions have been witnessing more incidents of landslides, flood and forest fires, districts in the Tarai plains have been witness to droughts and heat waves.

The erratic weather patterns—extreme rainfall in a short span of time, lack of rains for months, continued rain for several days and other unusual weather events—caused by climate change have become frequent in Nepal, affecting thousands of people and threatening livelihoods.

Climate experts said as the temperature of the mountainous region is rising faster compared to other parts of the country, incidents of avalanches, flash floods, and landslides are the obvious things, which have become more pronounced in recent years.

“We get more concerned about melting mountains and some other isolated incidents caused by adverse effects of climate change,” said Madhukar Upadhya, a climate change expert. “But the effects of climate change and global warming are far more devastating. They threaten the livelihoods of the people. As adaptation measures, people are migrating to other places.”

Lama, chairman of Chumnubri Rural Municipality, said that an expert team comprising geologists has recently designated Dewal Gaun unfit for human settlement due to landslides in the lower part of the village, which is nestled on hill slopes. There are 76 houses in the village, which was devastated by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake of 2015.

“People in our areas have been hit hard by the effects of climate change. Growing temperatures and forest fire incidents have cut the production of medicinal and aromatic herbs, water sources are dying and landslides have risked settlements and infrastructures,” said Lama.

He bemoaned the fact that people residing in the remote mountain villages have been bearing the brunt of climate change effects.

“Youths are migrating abroad in alarming numbers from these villages.”