Tag Archives: Himalayas

Rising temperatures mean more water is being lost through evaporation and absorbed by plants. At the same time, less water is entering river basins from rain and snowfall as weather patterns change.

Powerchina’s announcement it will build a mega dam could spur a dam-building race with India, with disastrous consequences for the ecology of the region.

Climate change, Asia’s rapid urbanization and population growth rates are placing increased pressure on scarce water resources.

Water scarcity has emerged as a highly critical and contentious issue in South Asia in the age of Climate Change. River water supply will increase in the short-term but this will only last as long as the glaciers do. Asia cannot rely on increased run-off being a long-lasting phenomenon. Changing rainfall patterns are expected to further exacerbate dwindling freshwater sources.

Nepal’s emission of greenhouse gases maybe small, but its annual growth rate is already the highest in South Asia.

India cannot claim to be “the biggest democracy in the world” while refusing to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir. If Scotland, Catalonia, and Crimea can vote to decide their own futures, so should Kashmir.

In a rare occurrence, a cyclone that started in the Bay of Bengal caused an avalanche in the Himalayas, killing at least 40 in Nepal. The even was a wakeup call to install effective early warning weather systems in mountainous Nepal’s higher reaches.

South Asia’s water and energy crises are deeply intertwined. Growing energy demand drives water shortages and lack of water fuels power outages. Regional cooperation – such as power trading between countries – could ease tightening resource constraints but such solutions have been largely scuppered by political suspicions.

Dolpa is one of the last two among Nepal’s 75 districts that doesn’t yet have a road connection and seeks to protect its pristine remoteness. Along with its rugged tree-less terrain, Dolpa’s jewel is Phoksundo Lake, a lapis lazuli-colored body of water, it is Nepal’s deepest and second-largest lake.

Scientists have used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – also known as drones – for the first time to monitor melting glaciers in the Himalayas more accurately.