A trail of devastation left behind by massive landslides and floods triggered by torrential downpours in Arunachal Pradesh exposed the vulnerabilities of people and connectivity in the strategically located border state. The extent of the devastation has raised concerns about the state’s readiness for a more severe natural disaster. A public warning from the Tawang District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on May 14 about the risk of a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in the area should be considered a signal to thoroughly check if the state is ready for such a major disaster. The public advisory issued by Tawang DDMA alerted the people that downstream regions of the Mago Cho basin, Tawang Cho basin and adjoining vulnerable areas may face possible threats from sudden flooding and landslides and debris flow, especially during continuous rainfall and adverse weather. The catastrophe triggered by the GLOF of South Lhonak Lake in Sikkim in 2023 is a grim reminder that Arunachal Pradesh must strengthen GLOF mitigation measures parallel to issuing public advisories on dos and don’ts. However, issuing the public advisory after the Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies (CESHS) warned about the potential dangers of GLOF, landslides, and other risks from the rapidly melting glacier and unstable ground near Khangri Glacier in the Mago Cho basin is an important step to help inform the public and prepare local communities and officials. The CESHS study explained that glacial lake dams, which form when glaciers melt, are made of ice, sand, pebbles, debris, and leftover ice, making them likely to fail suddenly and release a large amount of water downstream. The National Disaster Management Authority’s finding of 27 high-risk glacial lakes in Arunachal Pradesh is not just a regular safety check; it is a crucial warning that the conditions in the high mountains of this strategically important state are changing much faster due to climate change than the current disaster response system can manage. The growing difference between the risk of disasters and the ability to respond means that the state needs to improve its preparedness to keep up with the rapid melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, and all identified weaknesses must be fixed ahead of time to ensure effective rescue and recovery. The current floods and frequent landslides show that the central government’s contribution of Rs 40 crore out of the total Rs 45 crore for Arunachal Pradesh under the National Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Risk Mitigation Project (NGRMP) is not enough and needs to be increased to improve preparedness. The four parts of NGRMP are: GLOF Hazard and Risk Assessment (which means creating standard ways to check risks and keeping a list of lakes); GLOF Monitoring and Early Warning System (which uses satellite data and community help to watch for problems and send alerts); GLOF Mitigation Measures (which are specific actions that combine expert knowledge and community involvement); and Awareness Generation and Capacity Building (which means getting different groups involved at various levels). The goals of NGRMP are to save lives and lessen economic losses and damage to important infrastructure from GLOF and similar events; improve early warning and monitoring systems that reach local communities; boost scientific and technical skills for reducing GLOF risks at the local level by strengthening local institutions and communities; and use both local knowledge and advanced scientific methods to lower GLOF risks. The availability of adequate funds and the timely flow of funds must not pose any bottlenecks in achieving these objectives, as they are pivotal to strengthening GLOF resilience and readiness in the state. For Arunachal Pradesh, building capacity across departments, agencies and stakeholders to ensure timely and judicious utilisation of funds is necessary for maintaining uninterrupted fund flow and preventing execution delays. The state can ill-afford such delays given the gravity of the situation and the GLOF risk warning sounded by CESHS. Transparency in fund use, project planning and execution is crucial to boost the confidence of the people and communities and for awareness programmes to be successful in ensuring their participation in disaster preparedness. Anchoring the primary objective of disaster preparedness awareness to active participation helps shift people’s expectations from passive recipients of post-disaster aid to active contributors to disaster-risk monitoring, thereby significantly strengthening community alertness. As the rapidly warming Himalayas have magnified the disaster risks for the state, preparedness must hinge not just on its ability to anticipate the scale of the danger but also on strengthening mitigating capacity and raising post-disaster response to the highest possible level. For Arunachal Pradesh, a complete overhaul of its disaster mitigation and response protocol is an urgent necessity.