Northern Pakistan is experiencing intersecting climate emergencies driven by rampant deforestation and accelerating glacial melt. Glacial lake outbursts and destabilised slopes combine with intense monsoon rains and rare cloudbursts to generate catastrophic floods and landslides across Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Entire villages have been submerged and rivers blocked, forcing families to flee with little or no warning and to walk long distances to seek safety. Losses include homes, livestock, savings and infrastructure. Reduced forest cover has removed natural buffers while warmer mountain temperatures weaken glaciers, increasing risk and severity of future disasters.
Deforestation and glacial melting are the two leading causes compounding the climate crisis in the north of Pakistan. It was a routine day, and 26-year-old Muntazer Mehdi had performed his mid-afternoon prayers. Then, after lunch, the mountains started growling. The tailor, who lived in Chogogrung village at the foothills of the Siachen glacier the world's second-largest non-polar glacier knew what he had to do: Run.
Mehdi, his wife and their two children had to flee their home in late July after glacial melting led to a lake outburst. We knew what was coming because of how loud the clanking of the rocks was, and the water stream stopped, he said. We had just enough time to make it to a higher elevation and save ourselves, but all our life savings, home, livestock, it's all gone, wiped out in a few moments.
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