The flash floods of October 4 in Sikkim were the result of a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) at Lhonak Lake. Multiple reports had flagged Lohnak Lake’s high vulnerability to the GLOF-like event. While the fact that such warnings were not heeded is bad enough, what is worse is the fact that at least two man-made factors, namely global warming inflicted extreme rainfall events and human encroachment of floodplains will significantly increase the risks of GLOF-like disasters in the future. Here are three charts which explain this in detail.