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 …
On the major problems besieging the Himalaya: Mountain regions the world over have been neglected. The Himalaya face a major water crisis. In spite of housing the source of three major river systems, the resource is scarce in the hills. The other issue is irrigation. Less than 10 per cent …
global warming is set to make a horrifying mark on the high altitudes. While climate changes are taking a toll on the giant glaciers on the Himalaya by melting them, they are threatening the lives of thousands of native people and a host of rare animal species. The melting glaciers …
The Nepalese minister of forest and soil conservation, Rameshwor R Yadav, recently said that the government was committed towards protecting the Kanchenjunga region by AD 2000, as part of the World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) programme. "I appreciate the efforts of all conservation organisations in Nepal for their active …
GIVEN the almost explosive interest in and proliferation of environment-related documentaries in India in recent times, it is perhaps possible now to explore a defmition of the niche or slot itself. Are environment-related documentaries primarily about wildlife, or investigative reportage on environmental degradation, or merely doc- umentaries of ecological complexes …
to put a brake on vanishing Himalayan glaciers and shrinking snow cover, a 'Society of Indian Glaciologists' was recently proposed by eminent environmental scientists and glaciologists all over the country. The proposal was made at a two-day national symposium on 'Himalayan glaciers and snow cover' in New Delhi in early …
LANTANA CAMARA, a terror for cultivators, will finally see some use. Not only a menace in areas where the soil is fertile, the weed is equally at home in poor soils. Its seeds are disseminated widely by birds and have a high rate of germination. Moreover, Lantana is highly adaptable …
the hilly regions of the central Himalaya are facing problems in the storage of sufficient water, especially during summers, for drinking and irrigation purposes. The eight hill districts of Uttar Pradesh (up), spread over 51,000 sq km, have a population of approximately five million, for whom the water resources have …
the Himalayan yew (Taxus wallichiana), a rare tree found in the Himalayan foothills, is fast disappearing because of largescale illegal felling for an anti-cancer drug made from its leaves and bark. The tree parts are allegedly smuggled to laboratories in the us, Germany and other Western countries involved in research …
geologists , earth scientists and earthquake engineers from all over the country gathered at Shimla on October 14-15 for an interaction meet on natural hazards and their mitigation in Himachal Pradesh ( hp ). The meet was organised by the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehra Dun, and the hp …
Beneath the lofty Himalayan ranges lie extremely hot and radioactive rocks, the origin of which has remained a point of debate among geologists for years now. Recently, Audrey Huerta, a geophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, offered yet another explanation. She suggests that these rocks originally …
TODAY, the so-called highly developed countries are focussing their attention on traditional knowledge. On one hand, we are thinking of inhabiting the moon and on the other hand, there is a growing emphasis on the conservation of natural resources and cultures, on natural farming, traditional forest management, cropping, ecotourism and …
The Himalayan mountains constitute an ecological system naturally primed for disaster. The deep gorges through which the Himalayan rivers flow convey the impression that the Himalayan valleys would never face floods. Yet these very channels often fail to contain the fury of disastrous floods. Among the most affected valleys are …
"LARGE parts of Uttarakhand now lie denuded ... the whole region is turning into a desert. If this trend continues for another 50 years, it will become impossible to save the Himalaya from total collapse," environmental activist Chandi Prasad Batt had said at a public rally in 1980. One could …
The bid to reafforest the Himalayas could actually backfire on its ecology. Exotic plants which have the ability to grow rapidly and used for the programme are having an anis on the soil, water and air ha paglon. Vir Singh, a noted ecolo G 8 Pant University of kullara iand …
MASSIVE quake to hit northern India, screamed a headline in a national daily on December 20, 1994. After being stumped by the Latur quake of 1993, Indian geophysicists are back to their obsession with the mysteries that the 3,000-km long Himalayan belt holds under its awesome heights. The latest shockwave …
IN THE past century, humans have polluted the oceans, poisoned rivers and lakes, made deserts of good, arable land, felled forests, and severely eroded the mountainsides. This book seeks to protect the best that remains of this superb wilderness. The implications of the uses and misuses of the biological diversity …
FOR people inhabiting the higher reaches of the Himalaya, life is tough. The terrain is difficult and an extreme cold pervades the area through the year. To top all this, whenever it snows, a fear of avalanches invades every heart. Now, steps are being taken towards mitigating this apprehension and …
The world's highest garbage dump -- and a pretty impressive one at that -- grows at the base of Mount Everest. It is a symbol of the Himalayan ecosystem, snowed under human junk, sundry garbage and an ecology faltering under raucous and rowdy "developmental" assault, which is beginning sorely to …
