With over 1,250 lives lost so far — over 4,000 people are still missing — the extent of devastation is slowly becoming evident. Shaky social media visuals of the Rasuwa floods in Nepal have rattled the world. Seeing colleagues in Nepal reporting from different locations and bringing to us fragments of information and various news angles was a stark reminder that the full story of a climate shock rarely fits into one dramatic headline.
Soon after the flash floods, news outlets highlighted Nepal’s negligible contribution to climate change – accounting for 0.1% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. In late 2018, districts across Sri Lanka’s Northern Province were severely hit by flash floods. The floods in Pakistan in 2022, floods in different parts of India over the last few years, the cyclone in Sri Lanka in 2025, and now, Nepal’s staggering floods. A Pakistani friend recently shared a 2009 piece from Himal Southasian on her social media.
each climate shock shows us that the world we live in is unequal and unfair While we share the risks of the growing climate crisis. A point to ponder before we are drawn to unsubstantiated claims or conspiracy theories. Among the most affected in this disaster were Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamil community, especially people working in the tea and rubber estates across the central and southern hill country. But there are signs that show up from time to time. The stories may not be dramatic, but they are still telling. Tens of thousands of people were affected; crops were damaged, and villages inundated. As Sri Lanka prepares for the possible effects of El Niño this year, I am reminded of the GA’s matter-of-fact comment on how people and authorities were forced to combat one climate shock after another. We have witnessed major climate shocks in quick succession in the region. Authored by former diplomat Shyam Saran, it contended that South Asia is an ecologically interconnected system and called for a collaborative response to the climate crisis. Journalists in the region, however, have had more stories about natural disasters than collective strategies to tell.
Neck-deep in work, the then government agent (a post similar to that of a District Collector in India) of Kilinochchi, who spared time to explain the situation to me, said: “In fact, we were giving drought relief to our people even days before the flood suddenly hit us.
Historically marginalised, they not only contend with exploitation but are also the most vulnerable to climate shock, as Ditwah made evident. Climate shock events of the magnitude witnessed in Nepal recently, or in Sri Lanka last year, draw global attention.
