- By Aalok Sensharma
- Thu, 03 Oct 2019 11:49 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Washington DC (USA) | Jagran News Desk: More than 100 million people will be killed, which will be followed by massive starvation and would lead to climate change if India and Pakistan decide to go on nuclear war, claimed a new study.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, looks at a nuclear war scenario between the two neighbours in 2025.
“Such a war would threaten not only the locations where bombs might be targeted but the entire world,” said co-author Alan Robock of Rutgers University-New Brunswick in the US.
India and Pakistan at present have about 150 nuclear warheads each. The study, however, claimed that the two neighbours will have a combined count of 400 to 500 nuclear weapons by 2025.
“Unfortunately it’s timely because India and Pakistan remain in conflict over Kashmir and every month or so you can read about people dying along the border,” said Robock.
“Nuclear weapons cannot be used in any rational scenario but could be used by accident or as a result of hacking, panic or deranged world leaders,” he added.
The study further claimed that the nuclear war between the two countries will release around 16-36 million tonnes of soot (black carbon) in smoke that would rise into the upper atmosphere and block solar radiation. This would lead to a decline in sunlight by 20 per cent which would cool the planet’s surface by two to five degrees Celsius.
The study comes at a time when tensions between India and Pakistan are at an all-time high after New Delhi ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two union territories.
After the government’s step, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, while addressing the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, said that the dispute between the nations could escalate into a ‘nuclear war’.
The last time the two countries were engaged in a conflict was in February this year when the Indian Air Force crossed the Line of Control bombed the terrorist camps in Balakot after the deadly Pulwama attack which lead to the death of more than 40 CRPF soldiers.
The next day Pakistan retaliated and three of its F-16s entered the Indian territory which led to a dogfight between the countries. However, tensions reduced after Pakistan returned a downed pilot to India.
