Himalaya

Tree cover in Indian Himalayan region shrank by 2.2% in two years: Govt

The tree cover in the 13 states and Union territories of the Indian Himalayan region has shrunk by 2.27 per cent between 2021 and 2023, Union minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, the minister said that according to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023, the tree cover in the region fell from 15,427.11 sq km in 2021 to 15,075.5 sq km in 2023. Singh also said the total carbon stock in the forests of the Indian Himalayan region has been assessed to be 3,273.10 million tonnes in 2023. It stood at 3,272.68 million tonnes in 2021. Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Assam and West Bengal are part of the Indian Himalayan region. "Forest health is influenced by multiple ecological and biophysical parameters and not merely by the greenness of forest areas," he said. The Forest Survey of India (FSI) collects data on various ...

The living mountains: Anuradha Roy's intimate portrait of life in the hills

Anuradha Roy's Called by the Hills is a luminous, reflective memoir of building a life in the Himalayas-where gardens, memories and ecology quietly intertwine

Himalayas’ Nuclear Secret: How a CIA mission still haunts India’s Nanda Devi

In 1965, a covert CIA operation in the Indian Himalayas went disastrously wrong, leaving a plutonium-powered device buried somewhere on Nanda Devi.

Himalayan glacial lakes, water bodies expanded 9% over 14 years: Govt

Glacial lakes and other water bodies in the Himalayan region have expanded by 9.24 per cent over the past 14 years, said a Central Water Commission (CWC) report, spotlighting the effects of climate change. The total inventory area of glacial lakes and water bodies increased from 5.30 lakh hectares in 2011 to 5.79 lakh hectares in 2025, it said. The Monthly Monitoring Report by the commission keeps track of water bodies in the Himalayan region. Its August iteration, which is yet to be made public, noted that shrinking glaciers and the expansion of glacial lakes have become some of the most visible signs of global warming in the region. The CWC said 1,435 glacial lakes and water bodies showed an increase in their water spread area, while 1,008 recorded a decrease over the 14-year period. The report said the commission monitors 2,843 glacial lakes and water bodies using high-resolution Sentinel satellite data through Google Earth Engine. Of these, 428 glacial lakes located within Indi

High Altitude Heroines: Women's travelogues from British India revived

A collection of essays brings together enchanting travelogues by women from early 20th-century British India

China's Prez Xi praises Nepal PM Oli's commitment to promote bilateral ties

President Xi Jinping on Tuesday lauded visiting Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's commitment to promote China-Nepal relations and pledged to advance strategic ties with Kathmandu as both sides inked nine agreements. Oli arrived in Beijing on Monday on a four-day visit to China, his first official visit to that country after assuming office for the fourth time. Xi met Oli and expressed appreciation for the Nepalese leader's firm commitment to promoting friendship between the two sides over a long period, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. He also pledged efforts to advance the strategic partnership of cooperation with Nepal where Beijing has scaled up its investments in the last decade, expanding its influence in the landlocked country located between India and China. Xi said China and Nepal, linked by the same mountains and rivers, are good neighbours, good friends and good partners, and bilateral relations have maintained sound and steady development. Noting that n

Govt to overhaul nationwide weather monitoring infra for accurate forecasts

The Ministry of Earth Sciences gears up to harness advanced technologies and expand infrastructure for precise climate prediction and intervention

From fighters to copters, how R&D powers HAL's Himalayan-altitude flight

In the first of a two-part series on India's indigenous aerospace industry, Business Standard traces HAL's pioneering research and development

In the shadow of the mighty Annapurna

The unusual charm of trekking to Mardi Himal in the rainy season

KPMG plans C-suite topup across verticals to power Project Himalaya

The Project Himalaya, announced last year, involves the merger of the delivery capabilities of consulting, risk, and advisory practices of its units in the US, the UK, and India

Water shortages feared as snow in Hindu Kush Himalaya hits record low

The Hindu Kush Himalaya is experiencing significantly lower snow persistence this year, raising serious concern over water security for downstream communities, according to a new report. Leading experts from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a Nepal-based intergovernmental organisation, have urged water management officials to initiate drought management strategies and preemptive emergency water supply measures. The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region heavily depends on the cryosphere -- frozen water on the Earth's surface, including snow, permafrost, and ice from glaciers, lakes and rivers. This frozen water is a critical source of freshwater for around 240 million (24 crore) people living in the HKH region and has far-reaching benefits for around 1.65 billion (165 crore) people downstream. Snowmelt accounts for around 23 per cent of the total water flow of 12 major river basins originating in the HKH. However, its contribution varies from river to

Priyanka Gandhi urges Centre, U'khand govt to prevent forest fire incidents

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday urged the Centre and the Uttarakhand government to take steps to prevent forest fire incidents and make effective efforts with everyone's cooperation to save the Himalayas. Her remarks came after four forest workers were killed and four others injured while extinguishing a fire at the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary under the Civil Soyam Forest Division in Almora district of Uttarakhand. In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said, "The news of the death of four employees who went to extinguish the forest fire in Almora, Uttarakhand and many others getting injured is extremely saddening. I pray to God for everyone. I request the state government to provide compensation and assistance at every possible level to the affected families." The forests of Uttarakhand have been burning continuously for the past several months and hundreds of hectares of forest have been destroyed, she noted. There are reports of forest fires in Himachal Pradesh as well, s

Heavy rain, landslides kill 6 in India's Sikkim, 2,000 tourists stranded

Heavy rains triggered landslides at several locations in Mangan district, which covers north Sikkim and lies about 100 km north of the state capital Gangtok

NCLT allows insolvency against Himalayan Mineral Water on J-K Bank's plea

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed initiating insolvency proceedings against Himalayan Mineral Waters, allowing Jammu & Kashmir Bank's plea for default of a corporate guarantee given for LeeL Electricals. The Allahabad bench of NCLT has also appointed Bhoopesh Gupta as the interim resolution professional (IRP) for this Dehradun-based firm's Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). "We are satisfied that the Applicant/Financial Creditor (J&K Bank) has proved the debt and the default, which is more than the threshold limit... the application u/s 7 is found to be fit for initiation of the CIRP against the Corporate Debtor (Himalayan Mineral Waters," said a two-member bench in the order passed last Monday. Jammu & Kashmir Bank had claimed a default of Rs 50 crore against Himalayan Mineral Waters, engaged in the business of manufacturing of beverages, being the corporate guarantor for the credit facilities availed by the Leel Electricals. LeeL ...

Winter session: CPI moves notices seeking discussion on 'Himalayan ecology'

This came in the backdrop of Uttarakhand's Shilkyara tunnel collapse, wherein 41 workers got trapped and were rescued after a 17-long day

Himalaya tunnel disaster: India needs more caution on infrastructure

This is clearly an incredibly fragile part of the world, where large-scale development projects can only be conducted with the utmost caution

Aerosols heating up Himalayan climate, accelerates glacier's retreat: Study

Aerosols are heating up the Himalayan climate and contributing significantly to the accelerated retreat of the glaciers and changes in the precipitation patterns over the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau (HKHTP) region, researchers said. Aerosols alone account for more than half of the total warming of the region's lower atmosphere, with the remainder coming from greenhouse gases, the researchers from the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and Helmholtz Centre Potsdam and the University of Leipzig, Germany found in a joint study. According to the study, aerosols will likely remain a key factor driving climate change over the region. The researchers observed the concentrations of aerosols and the the amount of heat absorbed (radiative forcing) across several locations in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), the Himalayan foothills and the Tibetan Plateau. These are "relatively poorly studied regions with several sensitive ecosystems of global importance, as well as highly vulnera

Excess rainfall, glacial lake outburst likely cause of Sikkim flood: NDMA

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday said the possible cause of the flash flood in Sikkim could be a combination of excess rainfall and a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) event at South Lhonak lake in North Sikkim. In a statement, the NDMA also said the Himalayan ranges are host to many glacial lakes, estimated through remote sensing techniques at about 7,500 and of these, Sikkim has around 10 per cent of which nearly 25 are assessed to be at-risk. Giving details of the incident, the NDMA said in the early hours of Wednesday, there was a sudden surge in water flow in the Teesta river, which washed away several bridges, parts of NH-10, the Chungthang Dam and has impacted several small villages, towns and infrastructure projects in the upper reaches of the river valley. The main affected districts are Mangan, Gangtok, Pakyong and Namchi. "While scientists are investigating the exact cause of the flash flood, the primary reason for the sudden surge appears

India to spend $24 mn on Himalayan Airbase near disputed China border

The airbase will add to the capabilities of the Indian Air Force along the northern border, according to a statement after India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

Govt asks SC to order 13 Himalayan states for assessing carrying capacity

The Centre has urged the Supreme Court to direct 13 Himalayan states of the country to assess their 'carrying capacity' and proposed setting up of an expert panel to evaluate the action plans submitted by each of them. Carrying capacity is the maximum population size that an ecosystem can sustain without getting degraded. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change filed the affidavit in a PIL by Ashok Kumar Raghav after the top court had on August 21 asked the Centre and the petitioner to discuss and suggest a way forward to enable the court to pass directions on the carrying capacity of Himalayan states and towns. Raghav's plea sought an assessment of the carrying capacity and master plans for the Indian Himalayan Region spanning 13 states and union territories. The ministry told the apex court that it has in the past circulated guidelines for assessing carrying capacity of hill stations including cities and eco-sensitive zones to all 13 Himalayan states by its letter