New Delhi, Sept. 6 -- Climate Change & You is a fortnightly newsletter written by Bibek Bhattacharya and Sayantan Bera. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your inbox.

Dear reader,

This is a season of grief for many in India. Wayward rains, cloudbursts, landslides, and floods are wrecking Northwest India and the western Himalayas. The images are haunting. The River Beas swallowed an eatery in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, leaving behind just the facade, and washed away an entire stretch of highway in front of another hotel.

As one geologist observed: "A river will always return to its original course and floodplain, even after decades and centuries, and humans who build on these floodplains will be reminded of this by s...