Last summer more than 6,000 died after glacial melt cascaded through valleys in northern India. Scientists expect such disasters to become more common. Climate change is partly to blame for the rains last June that heavily damaged the pilgrimage town of Kedarnath and its majestic eight-century temple dedicated to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.

UTTARAKHAND, INDIA—The raging torrent hit in the morning, as Gopal Singh Bhist and his son, a cook and the leader of a pony train, prepared for work.

In minutes, the Mandakini river had breached its banks, sending a crushing hammer of water, ice and rock through the Himalayan villages in this north Indian state of Uttarakhand.

“There was no meaning in it. It didn’t give anyone a chance to survive,” said Bhist, a gaunt, weather-beaten man with a piercing stare. “Instantly, the water turned everything upside down.”

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