Relationship between India and Pakistan has never been normal and it’s unmistakably tension all the way, over the decades and in varying degrees. But since Imran Khan’s ‘bold’ announcement at the 74th session of UN General Assembly only a few days ago, that chances of a full-fledged nuclear war cannot be ruled out in case the Kashmir issue is not ‘resolved’, things have taken a murkier turn. With such a backdrop of heightened tension, a new finding has just emerged that is enough to send shivers down the spine of every resident of these two countries and the world as well. According to a study published in the ‘Science Advances’ journal on Wednesday last, nearly 125 million people are likely to die, almost instantly, if India and Pakistan engage in a nuclear war and that’s not all. A series of ‘after-effects’ will entail that would prove too baneful for the entire humankind to cope up with. Researchers who have presented this invaluable set of findings must be thanked, but what is more important in light of the current hate-filled atmosphere is how the both sides react to this and its possible ramifications on their respective nuclear-arms policies.  

Conducted by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and Rutgers University, the study has made a hypothesis that 2025 is the year of war when the combined nuclear arsenals of both nations are going to hover around a staggering range of 400-500. It would take not even a full week to kill 50-125 million people which will be more than the death toll of World War II which continued for six years. It has also been found from the research that exploding nuclear weapons could release 16 to 36 million tonnes of tiny black carbon particles in smoke that could rise to upper atmosphere, spread around the world within weeks and absorb solar radiation. And the most terrible consequence will be decline in percentage of sunlight reaching earth by as much as 20 to 35 per cent, causing a global cooling by 2 to 5 degrees Celsius, which actually means a revisit to the Ice Age and an overwhelming threat to global food production, leading to mass starvation and severe disruption of all natural ecosystems. In as much short and non-technical way, it can be said that ripples will lash all corners of the world sparing none, putting the very continuance of life on earth at great jeopardy.

With the apocalypse foretold, it will now be expected that the two nations come back to their senses, think, speak and act responsibly. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be anybody left to write the chronicles of this man-made cataclysm even.