The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
More than 350 new species, including a flying frog and the world's smallest deer species, have been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas in the last decade, according to the WWF. The eastern Himalayas, the region which spans Bhutan and Northeast India, north Burma, Nepal and southern parts of Tibet Autonomous …
The booklet Mountain Biodiversity and Climate Change was developed from the contributions made at the International Mountain Biodiversity Conference in November 2008 in Kathmandu, Nepal, which brought together representatives from the eight countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region with representatives of global programmes with experience related to data collection and …
Floods feared in Arunachal and Assam; governments least prepared a landslide on the Indo-Tibetan border has blocked the course of the river Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) resulting in the formation of a reservoir. This may cause flood in downstream areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam if the barrier of mud and debris …
An attempt has been made to study the soil bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes population in Seabuckthorn stand soil at different altitudinal zones in different seasons. Among different altitudinal zones greater microbial population size was recorded in Seabuckthorn stand soil of middle elevation zone followed by lower elevation zone and lower …
The Barak Basin of northeastern India covers the states of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. The rich and diversified vegetation of the region is facing perturbation in recent years and large tracts of forest are being converted to non-forest. In this study, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra (Vegetation …
An attempt has been made here to study the climatic influence on variation of tree-ring width (radial growth) of Blue Pine (Pinus wallichiana A.B. Jackson) growing in five different sites in and around Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast Himalaya. The site chronologies have been evaluated to assess inter-site differences through …
The Khangchendzonga National Park is a part of the eastern Himalaya global biodiversity hotspot and is located in the Sikkim state of India. Increasing livestock populations coupled with the government policy to ban grazing and its selective implementation resulted in conflict. Hence we undertook this multidisciplinary study involving consultations with …
Conservation policies to protect wildlife and biodiversity ignore the basic survival needs and imperatives of local people. This article aims to show how conservation policies trigger floods in protected areas, especially those located in the foothills of the Himalayan mountain ranges, leading to huge damage to plantations and habitats as …
The Khangchendzonga National Park, located in Sikkim is a part of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot. Traditional sheep herding practices in the park based on village consultations and field surveys to understand the population trend, migration pattern, fodder preferences, incomes and benefit sharing, ecological impacts and risk mitigation techniques were …
Sikkim Governor Balmiki Prasad Singh has called for creating common strategies among the biodiversity rich nations along the Eastern Himalayan stretch.
This issue is the first in the series of WII ENVIS Bulletin that deals with specialized habitats and threatened species covering various Biogeographic Zones of the country. India harbours nearly 45,000 species of plants, about 11% of the world
In this latest paper, ICIMOD provides a concerted review of climate change assessment with specific focus on biodiversity impact areas on the mountain ecosystems of the Eastern Himalayas. The information content is based on credible sources as well as current level of understanding advanced through application of science in climate …
Many agroforestry programmes, started during 1970s in various countries, suffered on account of ignoring the socio-economic structure of farm households in the design of these programmes. The empirical studies on behaviour of households on on-farm tree cultivation are now gaining importance to design socially acceptable agroforestry programmes to encourage agroforestry …
A considerable amount of research has focused on how and when the Tibetan plateau formed in the wake of tectonic convergence between India and Asia1. Although far less enquiry has addressed the controls on river incision into the plateau itself, widely accepted theory predicts that steep fluvial knick points (river …
Governance in the water sector is crucially important since the overarching goal of water security is to ensure the mitigation of global water crisis. Water security in mainland South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan) hinges upon the fulfillment of two conditions. One is the avaiability or supply of …
The elevation, loamy soil and forest foliage of the eastern sub-Himalayan mountains are ideal for large cardamom cultivation. Cardamom plantations cover about 22,000 hectares in Sikkim which produces 4,000 tonnes of the spice annually
Among the five species of shortwing that exist in India, four are found in the Himalayas. Rustybellied Shortwing Brachypteryx hyperythra, a globally threatened species with IUCN status Vulnerable, is endemic to Eastern Himalayas.
