Western Himalayas

Celebrating Uttarakhand
The Uttarakhand Himalayas are home to several small but significant attempts by locals to conserve the region's forest and water resources. chicu posted 7 years 6 months ago

Throughout history, the Uttarakhand Himalayas have been a source of timber and water to the rest of the nation. However, this has led to severe depletion of resources in the state. Today, the mountain communities find it hard to meet their basic needs of fodder, fuel and water.
Soil and water conservation rejuvenates forests
Book review - ‘Conserving resources in the Himalayas’
The Himalayas, rich in natural resources is now under stress due to overuse. These 21 essays contain information about conservation efforts made in the region, especially Uttarakand. chicu posted 7 years 7 months ago

Uttarakhand is blessed with an immense amount of natural resources such as forests, wildlife and water, but if you are looking for some research-based information that quantifies, classifies and organizes this information, there isn’t much out there.
A man tries to beat out a wildfire in pine forest
Offer of grant progamme for journalists - The Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP)
The HICAP grant programme seeks to encourage journalists from the Hindu Kush Himalayan region to report on climate change across the five sub-basins sabitakaushal posted 7 years 7 months ago

HICAP

Organiser details
Call for participation- Digital Photo Contest on 'Water and Life', ICIMOD , June 5, 2013
A photo contest on the theme of ‘Water and Life' celebrates ICIMOD's 30th anniversary. It also coincides with the United Nation’s International Year of Water Cooperation 2013. sabitakaushal posted 7 years 8 months ago

A village creates magic…and a river!
Sukha Raula (dry ravine) to Gad Ganga – the transformation in Ufrenkhal chicu posted 7 years 8 months ago

Ufrenkhal – the village
Driving towards Ufrenkhal, a village in Pauri Garhwal (Uttarakhand), I see a lush, green mountain covered with deodar, banj and utees trees. Little did I realize that this diverse and dense forest, which is alive with wildlife, is very new. 40 years ago, this vast area was a firing range!
Ufrenkhal in Uttarakhand
"Integrate understanding of hydro-geology into planning of watershed management programmes" - A report on the training workshop on groundwater management in the Himalayas, organized by People’s Science Institute, in December 2012 at Dehradun
Ever wondered why there is so much fuss about groundwater getting scarce by the day and its quality deteriorating like never before ? And does the liquid and solid waste that my home releases into the environment everyday influence groundwater ? These questions and many more were answered in a recent training workshop organized by People’s Science Institute, Dehradun from 12th to 22nd December 2012. The training was conducted with the aim of promoting the integration of hydrogeology into mainstream watershed management with a focus on issues of equity, quality and sustainability. This was the third in this series of workshops organized by PSI after December 2011 and June 2012, with the focus on groundwater management in the Himalayan states of India. Usha Dewani posted 8 years ago

Why a training on managing groundwater ?
Forced displacement: A gendered analysis of the Tehri dam project, Uttarakhand - An article in EPW
This paper by Vandana Asthana in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) examines the lived experiences of displaced women based on the empirical findings of research that looks at women displaced by the construction of the Tehri Dam and their relocation elsewhere. Amita Bhaduri posted 8 years ago

This paper by Vandana Asthana in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) examines the lived experiences of displaced women based on the empirical findings of research that looks at women displaced by the construction of the Tehri Dam and their relocation elsewhere.

Don't cut my oak trees: A film on afforestation in Uttarakhand by the Himalaya Seva Sangh
"Don't cut my oak trees, they give me water"."We get cool air from them, we get cool water".
"Don't cut my oak trees, they give me water".

So goes the plaintive title song of this short movie. Produced by the Himalaya Seva Sangh, the film on afforestation relies heavily on interviews with Dr.Shekhar Pathak of PAHAR and self-help group members from Mukteshwar, Sunadi, and Indwal. chicu posted 8 years ago

The state and fate of Himalayan glaciers - A paper published in the magazine Science
This paper published in the magazine Science highlights the importance of the Himalayan glaciers, the current uncertainties in relation to the status of glaciers, their implications for water resources in the region and the prevailing public and scientific debate around them. Current evidence indicates that most Himalayan glaciers are losing mass at rates similar to glaciers elsewhere, except for emerging indications of stability or mass gain in the Karakoram. aartikelkar posted 8 years 8 months ago

The paper argues that there is a poor understanding of the processes affecting the Himalayan glaciers in the context of the diversity of climatic conditions and the extremes of topographical relief within the region, making projections speculative, which can have a significant impact on the future of water resources in the area. It is thus important to have more information on the status of the glaciers in the Himalayan region.

Viability of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in India: Study of Chanju CDM project in Chamba district,Himachal Pradesh
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is introduced by US government as flexibility mechanisms under Kyoto Protocol and allows developed countries to meet their emission reduction commitments by promoting clean development in developing countries. As a policy mandate, it aims to design project-based mechanisms to reduce emissions. These reductions are produced and then subtracted against a hypothetical baseline of emissions which are predicted to occur in the absence of a particular CDM project. India as a signatory of this protocol have been registered 2313 projects up to August 2010, out of these, 64 projects are of hydro power generation and Chanju power project of 36 MW is one of the CDM project in India. Dr Mohinder Kumar Slariya in this article showcases the primary data research based view point, which he presented in the "International Scientific Conference" at Hohenheim University, Germany. Anonymous (not verified) posted 8 years 8 months ago

The present paper is an attempt of the researcher to make a comparative analysis between the expected benefits received by the executing agency under CDM and the actual benefits people are expected to receive from Chanju-I Hydro Electric Project.
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