The National UAE quotes Takshashila's Pavan Srinath

The National UAE quotes Takshashila’s policy research manager, Pavan Srinath on the death toll in the Indian monsoon disaster in Uttarakhand. India death toll rises to 600 as monsoon rains strand thousands more"Theoretically, if you mess around in mountain systems, you can increase chances of landslides or floods, yes," Mr Srinath said. "The question is: How much does the risk go up? We don't know that yet." Similarly, Mr Srinath hesitated to draw a link between global climate change patterns and the early monsoon rain that triggered Uttarakhand's floods."One of the theories is that global warming increases the intensity of the monsoon rains," Mr Srinath said. He acknowledged that climate change was causing "extreme weather events" but argued that it was difficult to conclusively prove that these floods were one such event."I would say, instead, that our towns haven't even adapted to regular variations in climates, let alone climate change-induced ones," Mr Srinath said. "Really, that's the conversation we should be having."