![\"Vegetation](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Vegetation_Himalayas_India_map.png\")
<\/p>\nAltitude and ecology are important factors in the ability of people in the Himalayas to adapt to climate change. That is the conclusion reached by three studies on communities in the Indian Himalayas, published over the past year.<\/p>\n
Scientists studied communities living at different heights in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. All found that communities\u2019 capacity to cope with the impacts of climate change is generally low. But two of the three studies identified those who live in the middle altitudes of the Himalayas as the most vulnerable to a changing climate, as high population density puts pressure on already-fragile ecosystems.<\/p>\n
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In June this year, the Indian government\u2019s Ministry of Earth Sciences published the country\u2019s first climate change assessment report<\/a>. It states that the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH), which span eight countries from Afghanistan in the west to China in the east, warmed by about 1.3 degrees Celsius between 1951 and 2014. Snowfall is declining and glaciers are retreating in several parts of the HKH.<\/p>\n The 50 million people<\/a> living in the Indian Himalayan region share certain vulnerabilities. \u201cSteep slope and terrain conditions limit the capacity of mountain agriculture systems to withstand even a small degree of disturbance,\u201d wrote the researchers who conducted the study in Himachal Pradesh. They attributed this to \u201ca rapid increase in population in the past few decades which has led to depleting resources, increased stress on critical environmental components like water, land and forest.\u201d<\/p>\n See:<\/strong> Thirsty in the Himalayas<\/a><\/p>\n See: <\/strong>Water and food shortage imminent in the Himalayas<\/a><\/p>\n Nakul Chettri is regional programme manager of transboundary landscapes at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a regional research institute based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He explained that the vulnerability of a community depends on how exposed it is to a risk, how sensitive it is to the risk and its capacity to adapt to the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cSettlements along riverine ecosystems may face flash floods\u2026 people living on steep slopes with fragile areas may face landslides\u2026 Settlements near protected areas may be more vulnerable to wildlife attack and crop depredation,\u201d Chettri said.<\/p>\n He said there are \u201ca few worrying indicators\u201d of the vulnerability of mountain communities<\/a> to climate change. Temperatures are rising, with warmer winters, and precipitation patterns are changing: rainfall is more intense and over shorter periods. Fruit and flowers are appearing earlier; vegetation normally found at lower altitudes with warmer temperatures is growing higher up the mountains.<\/p>\n The three new reports show what this broad trend means for specific mountain communities in three of the 12 Indian states in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kharagpur studied communities in the foothills (less than 1,200 metres above sea level) of West Bengal. Their report<\/a>, which was published in June, said there is overall \u201clow adaptive capacity\u201d to climate change.<\/p>\n Between July and September 2018, the researchers assessed 384 households in these areas of eastern Himalayas. They looked at four indicators of household vulnerability caused by climate change: income loss, crop loss, housing loss and overall livelihood loss. The findings showed vulnerability across the board.<\/p>\n The families surveyed were poor and earned a living from farming. The report found that every household in this sub-Himalayan region loses a significant amount of crops every year due to heavy rainfall or flooding \u2013 despite several adopting flood-resilient varieties.<\/p>\n![\"Vegetation](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Vegetation_zones_in_the_Himalayan_region-1.png\")
Foothills of West Bengal<\/h2>\n