The HKH Snow Update 2025 highlights a significant decline in seasonal snow across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, with snow persistence 23.6% below normal — the lowest in 23 years. This trend, now in its third consecutive year, threatens water security for nearly two billion people. All twelve major river …
IN 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body of scientists, said the glaciers of the Himalayas could melt by 2035. This was complete fiction. It also said global surface temperatures would go on rising by about 0.2°C a decade for the next 20 years. They have been …
The impacts of climate change are being felt in this highly susceptible Himalayan region Environment: Hidden in the folds of the mighty Himalayas is a valley that has not yet been overtaken by modernisation or industrialisation. Yet remote Ladakh, in India’s northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, has already began …
Encouraged by the success of the vulture propagation and conservation project, the wildlife wing of the Forest Department has decided to broaden the ambit of the project by bringing other species like eagles, buzzards and falcons under it. The dwindling population of vultures in the state has registered an appreciable …
As London Fashion Week concludes, Dr Charudutt Mishra explains how demand for cashmere is affecting Central Asian wildlife, and how enlisting the support of local people will be essential for the future of snow leopard conservation. The mountains of Central Asia are where the endangered snow leopards live. The higher …
Managing disasters, sustaining development in the Hindu Kush Himalayas - a presentation by Aditi Mukherji at CSE Annual South Asian Media Briefing Workshop on Climate Change, 2013 held in New Delhi from September 18-19, 2013.
Some parts of nature and human society are more vulnerable than expected to climate change, according to a draft of a U.N. report that adds a new purple color to a key diagram to show worsening risks beyond the red used so far. It says "unique and threatened systems" like …
Leading the campaign, Dr Anil P Joshi, founder of the Dehradun-based NGO HESCO, called for a separate ministry at the centre on the Himalayan region Environmentalists renewed their campaign against big dams on Monday and called for formulating a new sustainable developmental model for the entire Himalayan region in the …
The strongest scientific warning to date that global warming is man-made may have a muted impact when it is released later this month with many governments more focused on nursing weak economies than on fixing the planet. Many are also still smarting from a failure to agree a global pact …
Mountain regions have played a significant role in the history of biodiversity conservation, and promise to play an even larger part in future efforts to respond to climate change. After an historical overview of scientific research into mountain ecosystems, biodiversity conservation in mountain regions is examined in light of the …
The environment and forest clearance for various developmental projects, including those in hilly areas in the State of Uttarakhand, are granted after following statutory procedures. The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006 as amended from time to time, prescribes the procedure to be adopted for the grant of prior environment …
A leaked early version of a major forthcoming report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations-affiliated panel of scientists that is often cited as the world's top authority on global warming, is grabbing headlines this week. The New York Times reported on what it called the …
The Ministry of Environment and Forests is not aware of any scientific report relating to ecological degradation in the famous Gangotri, Yamunotri and Badrinath Dhams due to environmental change and pollution. However, a pilot study conducted on impact of hydro power projects in Bhagirathi Valley by GB Pant Institute of …
The mean annual temperature in the Himalayan region is likely to rise by up to two degrees by 2030 while the rainfall would also rise by five to 13 per cent in the next two decades, said a study prepared by the Uttarakhand government. Stating that the daily extremes in …
The International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS) proposes to set up a working group to study the impact of dust and black carbon from forest fires on the accelerated melting of snow and glaciers on the Himalayas. The decision was taken at a recent meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Cryosphere collectively …
Glacier systems that feed two key rivers in South Asia will badly retreat this century, but demands for water are still likely to be met, a study predicted on Sunday.The health of glaciers in the Himalayas is a closely-watched issue, as they supply vital meltwater to a region facing surging …
Observing that extreme rainfall events in the Karakorams, which hitherto were not known in this area, have started occurring with alarming frequency, a research paper has stated that this phenomenon was giving rise to the occurrence of land/snow slides in the higher reaches. The area includes the Siachen glacier and …
Environmentalists have underlined the need for a new study on climate change. Speaking at an interaction that Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) and Conservation Development Programme had organised in Lalitpur yesterday, they said climate change and natural calamity cannot be studied through conventional method anymore. Namindra Dahal, a meteorologist, …
Parts of the Indian Himalayan region are facing the risk of major earthquakes in the future, according to a study conducted by city-based National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI). "The conclusion was reached following seismic imaging (similar to human body imaging) of the Kumaon-Garhwal region in Uttarakhand for the purpose of …
The deathly sludge that entombed most of Kedarnath town in just 24 hours on the evening of June 16 and on June 17 morning may have just changed life in the Indian Himalayas forever. Survivors say they witnessed tonnes of waterborne debris flattening almost anything that stood in the way. …
The Himalayan region has seen unchecked construction activity, illegal mining, unscientific road building and hydropower projects built next to each other The floods in the Himalayas have been ferocious and deadly. The final body count could run into several thousands. There is no clear estimate of the number of villages …
