How Climate Change Impacts the Himalayas

Photo taken by Ankit Patel

Global warming is causing great changes in the Himalayas, this magnificent mountain quickly becoming a crumbling geological edifice and an ecological nightmare.

The Himalayas Undergo Irreparable Changes

Owing to climate change, Himalayan glaciers are melting, escalating the threat of drought in thousands of square kilometres of land, soil piping and flooding in some other places, presently inhabited and cultivated by millions of people. The Himalayan terrain is generally warming. Tourism, urbanisation, chemical farming, population growth, new roads and multistorey buildings, dam building, and deforestation worsen matters. Forest ecology is altering as plant species which belong to warmer climates are invading the upper crest of forests of these mountain ranges. As temperature increases, for example, the Oak trees accustomed to temperate climates are getting widely replaced by pines, which grow in warmer habitats. Cloud bursts and landslides have become very common.

The Catastrophe of Joshimath

Joshimath, a town in the Indian state of Uttarakhand has been evacuated because the city is sinking due to soil piping, caused by over-extraction of groundwater, rampant construction and many other unknown geological factors. This town of around 20000 people is a ghost town now with empty buildings, cracked walls and roads and pavements bursting open to form deep ravines.

Dams are Destroying the Fragile Precambrian Rocks

All the major countries with land areas in the Himalayas are competing to build dams in the rivers that flow from these mountain ranges. More than 500 hydroelectric projects are already built or being constructed in the Himalayan region by India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, and Pakistan. Many of these projects are not to fulfil the energy needs of the people of the Himalayas, but to meet the energy consumption of these countries' mainlands. Intense displeasure about this policy is brewing in the people of India's northeastern states. This writer had travelled to Sikkim, a scenic state of the northeast as a journalist a few years back and was told by environmental activists that in that small state, more people die of big rocks falling from the mountains than in traffic accidents or illnesses. The mountains are constantly shaken up and crumbling from dam-building activities.

Most of the Himalayas are formed of the Precambrian rocks which are younger when compared to other major rock types. They are very fragile and sensitive to geological disturbances. When dams are built, the mountain bases are burst open using explosives to build tunnels and other construction activities. These detonations shake the mountain and the rocks and boulders are loosened. Seismological Research has warned many times that the Himalayas are earthquake-prone, which was tragically proven when a massive earthquake shook Nepal in April 2015 killing more than 8900 people.

The warming of glacial plates raises the threat of flash floods similar to the one that happened in Uttarakhand state of India which destroyed 6000 lives. In February 2021, a large piece of a Himalayan glacier broke off and fell into the river and burst open the dam of the Rishiganga Hydroelectric Project. More than 50 people lost their lives. Scientists have repeatedly warned that even a minimal alteration to the geological and environmental situation of the Himalayas can lead to catastrophic effects on the ecosystem, terrain, and the lives of the people who inhabit these mountains. Recent studies also revealed that the locations where glaciers melt and retreat are more prone to landslides than other places.

The Rhododendron flower of the Himalayas

The Ecosystem of the Himalayas

About half a billion people inhabit the Himalayas and another 1.9 billion live downstream. Agriculture and cattle rearing are the main local livelihood options and Yak is a domesticated animal that serves many purposes in rural village life. Yak milk and meat are consumed and these animals are used to carry weight.

Tourism has grown exponentially since the beginning of the 20th century. On the one hand, tourism provides livelihood but on the other, it has been destroying the ecosystem and depleting the sustainability of human life on these mountains. Many native species are becoming endangered as the human load on geography grows. Sheep, goat, and Yak grazing is another aspect of human life on these mountains that causes huge ecological damage. Himalayan countries like Bhutan have tried to reduce the tourism load on the ecosystem by limiting the number of tourists allowed per year. Some examples of the Himalayan species in the red zone are the one-horned rhinoceros, Asian elephant, red panda, and the Himalayan musk deer.

Biodiversity

One-third of the Himalayan flora is endemic to the region, meaning they cannot be seen elsewhere. In the foothills, mainly tropical rainforests grow. There are grasslands, wet Sal forests, evergreen deciduous forests, Alpine meadows, and eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests nestled in the Nepal side of the ranges. Conifers, Alders, Birches, Figs, and Horse Chestnuts thrive in the Kashmir region. The main vegetation type in the eastern and central Himalayan foothills is tropical evergreen forest. There are also moist mixed deciduous forests, subtropical pine forests, broad-leaved temperate forests, subalpine and alpine shrubberies, and marshy and swamp forests at different altitudes.

In altitudes between 800 and 1900 metres, Chir pine is the most commonly seen tree. Between 1800-2700 metre altitudes, the Giant Himalayan Cedar grows. Some of the oldest and the tallest trees can be seen in the upper Bhagirathi valley of the Ganges River. Between 2200-3100 metres altitudes, Blue Pines and Spruces grow. There are also trans-Himalayan cold deserts where trees are absent and the vegetation is similar to an Arctic Steppe.

Half a decade ago, in his iconic book, ‘Snow Leopard’, Peter Matthiessen painted a vivid picture of flowers such as Hibiscus, Frangipani, and Bougainvillaea when “seen under snow peaks”, turning into “the flowers of heroic landscapes”. He observed a pied wagtail flitting about the rocks and Macaques skittering the “green meadows”. He also spotted Barbets, Rollers, Drongos, and White Egyptian Vultures on his way to Crystal Mountain in the Dolpo region of the Himalayas. As early as the 1970s, he described in this book, how the Sal forests of this region were cut down, and the elephants, tigers, and the great Indian rhinoceroses of these forests were poached to near extinction. He quoted his co-traveller, the great zoologist, George Schaller, “In the Himalaya as elsewhere there is a great dying, one infinitely sadder than the Pleistocene extinctions, for now, man has the knowledge and the need to save these remnants of his past.”

Matthiessen heard cicadas and jackals in the nights and spotted a cocoa-coloured wood frog on the pebbled mountain paths. He also wrote about finding the mystical and elusive Edelweiss flowers which are originally Alpine flowers and part of the Alpine lore. Many species described by Matthiessen are no longer spotted in the Himalayas.

Orchids and Rhododendrons of the Himalayas

The majestic mountain ranges of the Himalayas are home to many endemic orchid species. The first-of-a-kind book, ‘Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas’, written by British botanists Sir George King and Robert Pantling in 1898, lists 449 species of Himalayan orchids. The authors collected and studied all the species described in the book with the help of a Sikkimese (an Indian state) tribesman, a Lepcha. The orchids, Blue Vanda, Red Vanda, and Ladies Slipper Orchid have been included in the list of plants protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of India. Sikkim is a northeastern state of India where commercial cultivation of Cymbidium orchids is a big agro-industry. In the northeastern states, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, orchid sanctuaries have been established to protect Himalayan orchids.

Rhododendrons have the maximum species diversity in the Himalayas and the different species vary from shrubs to trees. They are seen on steep slopes and rocky terrains. Many Rhododendron treks meander through hundreds of trees in full bloom. These trees bloom between late February and late April. When you are walking the Goechala trek or Deoriatal-Chandrashila trek, you will see tree canopies luxuriantly and entirely covered in pink and red flowers all the way along. Recent research has found that the phytochemicals in a Rhododendron species, Rhododendron arboretum, is a potential drug for Covid 19 infection.

Protecting the Himalayas

Thousands of poets and travel writers fell to the magnificent charm of these mountain ranges and words flowed through centuries like the waterfalls that come down from its many peaks. Kalidasa, the great Indian poet who presumably lived in the 4-5 CE, wrote verse after verse about the high cliffs, forests, rivers, flora, and fauna of the Himalayas and filled as many as five or six epic books with its encomiums. All these classic poems are set in these pristine forests, mountains, and canyons.

The silence of the mountains is reposeful. Unlike in lesser altitudes, the play of light against snow could gain mysterious tones and is phenomenally transient. A traveller to Kailasa wrote he saw Mount Kailasa first with a silver sheen, its strong light piercing one's eyes. The Mount suddenly transformed into a golden spire, and in the next moment, turned grey drenched in a sudden torrent of rain and mist and then acquired the shade of deep black, once the rain washed away the snow. To the religiously inclined, this sight alone would prove the holiness of this abode of Shiva, the Hindu God. However, the volatile microclimate of such altitudes brings about such enthralling visual displays.

There was a controversy when the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the Himalayan glaciers would completely melt and cease to exist by 2035. That was a miscalculation and overestimation. However, the inference was not far from the truth. Glaciers are greatly threatened by global warming. Every year, human habitation in the Himalayan region suffers in unimaginable ways when clouds burst, flash floods wipe away entire townships and hamlets, and landslides unleash death and destruction.

A study published in Nature magazine by Maharaj K Pandit estimated that the economic loss, so far, is between US$ 500 million and US$ 2 billion. Thousands of people lost their lives. The population load on the land and related human activity load in the Himalayan region are increasing exponentially. This is taking a huge toll on the natural ecosystems and biodiversity. Border tension between India and China looms and both countries are trying to beat each other in dam building as a strategic step. The result of these ruinous disturbances in the geography and ecosystem will eventually affect the people of both countries as natural disasters.

These mountains have 8800 glacial lakes that face the threat of bursting open if warming causes extreme glacier melts. Criminal groups loot the forest wealth and poach wild animals. Though faced with all these threats to the country's most important mountain stretch, politicians of the Himalayan countries show no serious commitment to putting in place, monitoring mechanisms and protection networks for the Himalayas.

India set aside US$ 4.27 billion for the green energy transition. Environmentalists hope that steps like these will re-navigate the policy away from hydroelectric projects. The project, Securing Livelihoods, Conservation, Sustainable Use and Restoration of High Range Himalayan Ecosystems project (SECURE Himalaya), was launched by the government of India in 2017. There are many non-governmental groups also working to protect the Himalayan ecosystem.

The future of humanity depends on the future of these mountains, not only in Asia but worldwide. The Himalayas have a major role in regulating the climate of the entire planet. They provide fresh water to millions of people and sustain life. Humanity’s wisdom is once again questioned as we destroy these fragile ecosystems, which is an act of slashing the roots of our existence.

References

The Himalayas: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture, Andrew J Hunt and James A Wren, 2018.

Replacement of Oak Forest with Pine in the Himalaya Affects the Nitrogen Cycle, J.S. Singh, Y.S. Rawat, and O.P. Chaturvedi, Nature, 311, 54-56, 1984.

Hydropower Projects are Wreaking Havoc in the Himalayas, Prakash Kashwan and Neelima Vallangi, March 19, 2021, aljazeera.com

The Himalayan Hazards Nobody is Monitoring, Navin Singh Khadka, March 5, 2021, bbc.com

The Population of Himalayan regions - by the numbers: Past, Present, and Future, Michal Apollo, ResearchGate, 2017.

Himalayas, britannica.com

Phytochemical Rich Himalayan Rhododendron arboreum petals inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Infection In Vitro, Lingwan et al., Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, 41 (4), 1403-1413, 2023.

The Himalayas must be Protected, Maharaj K Pandit, Nature, 2013.