When Nepal’s Trishuli River rose 9 metres in 30 minutes, killing thousands, it wasn’t just a local tragedy. It was a warning bell for India too. Because rivers don’t respect borders. Glaciers don’t carry passports. And avalanches don’t check maps before they crash. We’ve been treating Himalayan disasters like they’re someone else’s problem; send aid, rebuild, move on. But scientists are now saying: this isn’t a flood, it’s a climate cascade. Melting glaciers + thawing permafrost + erratic rainfall = chaos we can’t predict with old models. The real kicker? India’s own Himalayan states; Uttarakhand, Sikkim; have already faced similar disasters. And we’re still pretending they’re isolated events. Prof Ajay Mathur from IIT Delhi put it bluntly: India must stop being just the donor in crises. We need to co-design regional climate insurance, real-time data sharing, and joint early warning systems. Not out of charity; out of survival. Because if Nepal’s mountains collapse, India’s rivers will flood. If Sikkim’s glacial lakes burst, Bihar and UP will drown. This isn’t humanitarian aid; it’s self-preservation on a continental scale. The Himalayas don’t belong to any one country. But their fate? That’s now India’s responsibility too.