The Himalayan apocalypse: Water insecurity in a nuclear ecosystem

By A Representative 

A preliminary inquiry into water justice and security within the Himalayan nuclear ecosystem, authored by Gopal Krishna for the Calcutta Research Group, warns that the region is facing a slow-motion "apocalypse" driven by the monetization of natural capital and the proliferation of nuclear infrastructure. The 2025 policy brief argues that the "creation of irreality"—the destruction of authentic meaning in words like "peace" and "security"—is being used by states to mask preparations for ecological warfare against their own habitats. 

Krishna highlights a dire situation where three nuclear-armed nations in the Himalayan watershed—India, China, and Pakistan—currently possess 950 nuclear weapons and operate 84 nuclear reactors, with nine more under construction, creating a "community of shared risk" for nearly half the global population. 

This nuclear footprint is inseparable from water security, as nuclear plants consume 20% to 80% more water than coal facilities, and any radiological incident threatens to contaminate the surface and groundwater resources upon which 1.5 billion people depend.  

​The report underscores a pattern of "Ostrich policy" and "unscientific infrastructure development" that disregards the memory of rivers and the vulnerability of the Himalayan landscape to landslides, cloudbursts, and glacial lake floods. 

Specifically, Krishna points to the silence of official pollution assessments regarding the Narora Atomic Power Plant's impact on the Ganga, despite the plant's heavy diversion of fresh water. He further notes that the new Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act of 2025, while using an acronym meaning "peace," actually imposes a blanket ban on the disclosure of information, debarring it from the Right to Information Act and further distancing the state from public scrutiny. 

This lack of transparency is particularly concerning given the history of accidents, such as the 1987 refuelling disaster at Kalpakkam and various leakages at the Tarapur and Rajasthan atomic stations, which the report claims demonstrate that nuclear facilities are inherently "accident-prone" and "unpredictable".  

​To address these existential threats, the inquiry advocates for a paradigm shift from a narrow "national security" narrative toward a "water justice" framework that recognizes the rights of both human and non-human beings. 

Krishna calls for the adoption of a UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Reactors, modeled after the existing treaty on nuclear weapons, to phase out nuclear energy in favor of renewables. He notes that a global trend is already emerging, with countries like Italy, Germany, and Taiwan permanently closing their nuclear plants and 37 reactors being shut down in Europe since the Fukushima disaster. 

Ultimately, the document argues that without a "shared consciousness" and the "rectification of names"—aligning the words of statesmen with the facts of ecological survival—the Himalayan ecosystem remains vulnerable to an imminent ecocide that transcends national borders.