This book provides a unique and comprehensive assessment of the changes that have been taking place in the Himalayas. It describes in detail all the aspects of change, both natural and cultural, along with their implications, and suggests policy measures to help mitigate them. The book is divided into two major sections – on natural changes and cultural changes – and 11 chapters: an introduction, six addressing changes that concern natural aspects, and four exploring cultural changes and presenting the book’s conclusions. The content is based on a study conducted using a participatory observation/empirical method. Time series data from secondary sources is also included, helping to analyze the various changes. The findings are presented in the form of color graphs, models, maps, photographs, and tables. The book offers a valuable resource for policymakers, and will prove equally useful for all other stakeholders, e.g. researchers, students and development agents.

The Himalaya is the new folded mountain system – the tallest and the youngest in the world. It has a rich diversity – natural and cultural, and diversity in all walks of life. Most of its uniqueness is unknown because of its remoteness. Even, the native people are not aware of them. This book aims to describe the uniqueness of the Central Himalaya in terms of its natural and cultural diversity in detail. Supported by original figures and primary data, this book is empirically tested. It is mainly based on observation and participation and the use of a qualitative approach. Although lots of work has been carried out on the various aspects of the Himalayan region yet, a detailed description of the natural and cultural diversity is yet to be done. This book steps forward to elaborate on some of the unique natural and cultural features of the Central Himalaya, which are worthy to be known about. It contains a total of 10 chapters. Four chapters are devoted to natural diversity and four chapters comprise cultural diversity. Besides, the introduction and conclusions are the first and the last chapters of the book, respectively. The book is the first of its kind and will be useful to all stakeholders – students of all standards, research scholars, academicians, policymakers, native people, tourists, and the general public.

The Karakoram contains the greatest concentration of glaciers and most of the largest ice masses outside high latitudes. They comprise major stores and sources of fresh water in an otherwise extreme, continental, dry region. As many as 200 million people living downstream, in the valleys of the Indus and Yarkand Rivers, depend on melt waters from snow and ice. They are at risk from climate-change impacts on glaciers and water supply, and from hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods. Useful research initiatives go back to the nineteenth century, but coverage has generally been limited geographically and has not been continuous over time. It is almost 80 years since a monograph was devoted to the Karakoram glaciers. The book presents a comprehensive overview, including statistics for the ice cover, glacier mass balance and dynamics, glacierized landscapes, rock glaciers, water resources and environmental hazards. Published glaciological and related research is surveyed along with expedition reports and archival materials in several languages. The expanding potential of satellite coverage is exploited, but conditions and processes reported from field investigations are the main focus. Previously unpublished observations by the author are presented, based on some 45 years of work in the region. Broad understanding of the glacial environment is used to address emerging concerns about the High Asian cryosphere and the fate of its glaciers. These are discussed in relation to the pressing issues of water supply, environmental risk and sustainability. Questions of what is not known help identify much needed monitoring and research. The book is of interest to researchers, professionals, and those studying glaciers, mountain environments, water resources and environmental hazards. The topics discussed should be of concern for anyone involved in regional development and global change in South and Inner Asia.

The collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates 50 million years ago created the Himalaya, along with massive glaciers, intensified monsoon, turbulent rivers, and an efflorescence of ecosystems. Today, the Himalaya is at risk of catastrophic loss of life. Maharaj Pandit outlines the mountain’s past in order to map a way toward a sustainable future.

This book discusses the impact of climate change, land use and land cover, and socio-economic dynamics on landslides in Asian countries. Scholars recently have brought about a shift in their focus regarding triggering factors for landslides, from rainfall or earthquake to claiming rapid urbanization, extreme population pressure, improper land use planning, illegal hill cutting for settlements and indiscriminate deforestation. This suggests that the occurrence or probabilities of landslides are shaped by both climate-related and non-climate-related anthropogenic factors. Among these issues, land use and land cover change or improper land use planning is one of the key factors. Further climate change shapes the rainfall pattern and intensity in different parts of the world, and consequently rainfall-triggered landslides have increased. These changes cause socio-economic changes. Conversely, socio-economic and lifestyle changes enhance inappropriate land use and climate change. All these changes in land use, climate and socio-economic aspects are dynamics in nature and shape landslide risks in Asian countries, where they are given serious attention by governments, disaster management professionals, researchers and academicians. This book comprises 21 chapters divided into three major sections highlighting the effect of climate change on landslide incidence with the influence on vegetation and socio-economic aspects. The sections address how climate change and extreme events have triggered landslides. The advances in geospatial techniques with the focus on land use and land cover change along with the effect on socio-economic aspects are also explored.

From an environmental point of view, mountains are particularly sensitive and important for monitoring the state of health of our planet. Only through distribution of meteoclimatic and atmospheric composition monitoring points in mountain regions, coupled with modelling simulations, will we be able to thoroughly analyze complex pollutant transport mechanisms and better understand imminent global changes. The Himalayan-Karakoram range. For its elevation and geographic location, represents one of the ideal places for studying long-range pollutant transport systems on a regional scale and for monitoring changes index by mechanisms that act on global scale through monsoon circulation.The Ev-K2-CNR committee with this book reached its objective of creating a unique opportunity for dialogue between major environmental scientists and experts, highlighting the close relationship between diverse themes with a common underlying thread: in-depth comprehension of the environmental phenomena which are determining the health of our planet.

This open access volume is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people’s well-being. The compiled content is based on the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, experts and policymakers, brought together by the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) under the coordination of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This assessment was conducted between 2013 and 2017 as the first of a series of monitoring and assessment reports, under the guidance of the HIMAP Steering Committee: Eklabya Sharma (ICIMOD), Atiq Raman (Bangladesh), Yuba Raj Khatiwada (Nepal), Linxiu Zhang (China), Surendra Pratap Singh (India), Tandong Yao (China) and David Molden (ICIMOD and Chair of the HIMAP SC). This First HKH Assessment Report consists of 16 chapters, which comprehensively assess the current state of knowledge of the HKH region, increase the understanding of various drivers of change and their impacts, address critical data gaps and develop a set of evidence-based and actionable policy solutions and recommendations. These are linked to nine mountain priorities for the mountains and people of the HKH consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is a must-read for policy makers, academics and students interested in this important region and an essentially important resource for contributors to global assessments such as the IPCC reports.

This volume presents a comprehensive description of forests of the Uttarakhand Himalaya. It looks into the major drivers of forest depletion and suggests paths toward sustainable forest management. The book comprises thirteen chapters, which together describe forest land use/cover change; forest classification and working circles; national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and conservation reserves; forest diversity and distribution; forest stocks and products; ecosystem goods and services; environmental index; drivers of forest degradation and conservation; climate change and forests; cultural and economic significance of forests, and sustainable forest management. The text is richly complemented by nearly seventy photographs and figures.

This book discusses plant invasions and environmental impacts on the Himalayas through a novel procedure, and helps to understand the influences of climate, physiography, soil, and disturbance on plant richness in mountain systems. Assessing invasion risks to mountain space under future climate change scenarios is highly significant for appropriate preparedness, and this book details analytical and modeling techniques to assess the conditions of mountain ecosystem and ecology to better inform our preparation for future environmental challenges. The book presents the state-of-the-art understanding of the species-environment relationships in a global biodiversity hotspot, relatively unexplored areas for the Himalayan life-form richness. The book provides not only the academic but also the professional community and policymakers a review and update on modeling applications for determining interactions of the plant species with the environment of a subtropical mountain ecosystem across a climatic gradient. Currently, there is no book in the market addressing the implementation and applications of modeling in the Himalayan plant and environment continuum, and most of the existing books cover the species richness pattern along the elevation gradient and basic ethnobotanical features of a mountain system. Since the book covers the applications of novel methods and modeling for ecological analysis of mountain ecosystems, it will also be significant for the professional market. Therefore, the book aims to fill the gap between scientists and professionals in the use of modeling strategies to monitor biodiversity in mountain systems for the formulation of conservation, adaptation, and mitigation principles.