Can opening an opening in the Himalayas change the climate between China and India?

Decades ago, someone planned to blast a hole in the Himalayas, believing that this would improve the climate conditions in inland China.

Of course, this plan did not become a reality in the end. As for who this person is, everyone knows it, but this is not the point. The point is that if a hole is really opened in the Himalayas, can the climate conditions in inland China be improved? The Himalayas are located on the southern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the highest plateau in the world in average altitude. It is known as the "Roof of the World". Its total length from east to west reaches 2,800 kilometers and its width from north to south exceeds 1,500 kilometers. It not only includes the entire territory of Tibet and parts of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan, but also parts of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In the southern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau lies a 2,450-kilometer mountain range, the Himalayas, which is 350 kilometers wide at its widest point.

For China and India, the Himalayas can be said to be a natural barrier. This barrier is not only difficult for humans to cross, but even the water vapor from the Indian Ocean is difficult to pass over the mountain. That is why some people believe that the arid climate in northwest China is inseparable from the Himalayas. For China, the Himalayas seem to be the source of drought, but for India, it is a mountain that brings rain. The warm and humid air currents heading north are blocked by the Himalayas and can only be forced to rise. As the altitude increases, the temperature gradually cools, and the warm and humid air currents cool down, forming rainfall.

On the windward slopes of the eastern Himalayas, annual precipitation exceeds 4,000 mm.

In addition, the world's rainiest region is also located in this area. In Cherrapunji in northeastern India, the warm and humid air currents from the Bay of Bengal are blocked by the windward slopes of the Khasi Mountains and rise to form rainfall. The average annual rainfall here reaches 10,935 mm, and the highest recorded rainfall reaches 26,461.2 mm, which is well-deserved as the world's rainiest region. So some people say that if a hole is blown in the Himalayas, India will not be able to feed such a large population. When it comes to blowing a hole in the Himalayas, we immediately think of the highest peak in this mountain range, that is, Mount Everest. So, does blowing up Mount Everest mean opening a hole in the Himalayas? Far from enough.

Mount Everest is well-known because of its title as the world's number one peak. In the Himalayas, there are 10 peaks with an altitude of over 8,000 meters.

Therefore, even if Mount Everest is missing, it will not have much impact on the climate of China and India. If you really want to completely change the climate, you have to make a big hole. However, even so, the drought situation in Northwest my country will not be improved much. Why? Because even if there is no Himalayas, there are still Gangdise Mountains, Tanggula Mountains and Kunlun Mountains. It is impossible for water vapor to enter directly. Therefore, if you want to completely change the climate of Northwest China, it is not enough to just blow up the Himalayas, unless the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is completely removed. More importantly, if the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is removed, the climate will not improve, but will become worse.

I don’t know if you have noticed that in the area between 20 and 30 degrees north latitude, most areas are dry and rainy, such as North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

The Jiangnan region of my country is also located at the same latitude, but it has been a land of fish and rice since ancient times. Why is this? Because of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The reason why the area between 20 and 30 degrees north latitude is dry and rainy is because this area is controlled by the subtropical high pressure. Due to the existence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a local high pressure area has appeared, which makes the water vapor in the ocean flow into the Jiangnan region of my country. As a result, we get rid of the control of the subtropical high pressure in summer and form our own unique Jiangnan climate. If there is no Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it is hard to say whether the drought problem in the northwest region can be improved, but the climate in the Jiangnan region will inevitably deteriorate.

If the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau disappears, it's not just the climate that will change.

The existence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is of great significance to my country and the countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia. my country's Yangtze River, Nujiang River and Lancang River all originate from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the Ganges River, which is regarded as the "incarnation of the goddess of purity" by India, also originates from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. More than 22% of my country's water resources come from here, and one of the main sources of this water is glacial meltwater. According to statistics, the amount of glacial meltwater contributed by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau every year is calculated in "tens of billions of cubic meters". Therefore, whether it is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau or the Himalayas, its existence is the result of natural breeding, and the consequences of human changes are difficult to estimate. "The disappearance of the Himalayas" is just a hypothesis. The reality is that this mountain range will not only not disappear, but will also increase every year, because the Eurasian plate and the Indo-Australian plate that led to the formation of the Himalayas are still colliding and squeezing.

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