Category Archives: Athar Parvaiz

Out to pasture: Kashmir’s livestock-livelihood link threatened

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Be it the famed Pashmina shawls or the meat Kashmiris so love, the grasslands of Ladakh and the alpine pastures of the Kashmir Valley have long been a livelihood resource in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state. But the vital livestock-livelihood link, a way of life for centuries in the Himalayan region, could come undone as natural processes and human activity combine to threaten the pasture lands as never before.

The pastoral lands of Ladakh, a cold desert, and the Kashmir Valley – the two regions along with Jammu in the plains comprise the border state of Jammu and Kashmir – have played host to a variety of livestock and been a critical driver of the local economy since time immemorial.

More at:  http://www.thethirdpole.net/out-to-pasture-kashmirs-livestock-livelihood-link-threatened/

India struggles to control rising vehicle use, pollution

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NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Environmental and public health experts are warning that an explosion in the number of motorised vehicles on India’s roads is threatening the health and economic security of its population.

Stricter standards are needed to control vehicular pollution and regulate traffic, they say, along with moves to popularise non-motorised transport.

More at: http://www.trust.org/item/20131219175901-vb54c

Tourists’ toilet habits flush Himalayan town dry

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Tanzin Dorje can remember a time he could drink straight from the stream that runs through Ladakh’s main town Leh.

“Today, such a sight has become a dream,” he sighed. The huge number of tourists Ladakh receives now has not only changed peoples’ outlook, but both water quality and availability.

In Ladakh, often referred to as the land of freezing winds and burning sunlight, people once lived on livestock-rearing and farming. But after they found out the road to quick money lay in creating infrastructure for tourists, that was what they started doing everywhere.

More:  http://www.thethirdpole.net/tourists-toilet-habits-flush-himalayan-town-dry/

The Land of Vanishing Pastures

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The northern Indian regions of Kashmir and Ladakh are home to a variety of livestock that provides meat as well as fine wool used to produce the famous Pashmina shawls. But overgrazing, strong winds and car traffic are now destroying pastures and posing a hazard to the survival of traditional herding.

More at:   http://www.scidev.net/global/livestock/multimedia/the-land-of-vanishing-pastures.html

Ladakh Invites New Scarcities

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Athar Parvaiz

LADAKH, India, Sep 24 2013 (IPS) – The Ladakh of today is a different world from the one Skarma Namgiyal remembers as a child. Back then, he had taken for granted the breathtaking beauty of its landscape, the purity of the cold mountain air, and the sweet taste of water in its streams.

Today, at 47 years of age, this resident of Tukcha village in Leh district in the north of Kashmir cannot believe they are digging borewells for water, using water to flush toilets in their homes in place of the dry toilets they had been accustomed to, and having to cope with sewage flowing right up to their houses.

Climate change, booming tourism and modern practices are wreaking havoc in this high altitude cold desert in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state. The average elevation in Ladakh is 11,000 ft above sea level and temperatures swing between minus 35 degrees Celsius in winters to 35 degrees in summer. Annual rainfall in the region is less than four inches.

Earlier, water from the melting glaciers would be enough to cater to the needs of the locals, Namgiyal tells IPS. But with less snowfall and warmer summers, some of the glaciers have vanished altogether while others too are fast melting.

“Look at Khardongla,” says Namgiyal’s neighbour Tsering Kushu. “It used to be a huge glacier. It is not there anymore.”

More at: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/09/ladakh-invites-new-scarcities/

Uttarakhand – a Himalayan tragedy

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Athar Parvaiz

The Himalayas, the youngest mountain range in the world, are known for their landslides and earthquakes. In recent years these natural hazards have been exacerbated by reckless development activity and the impact of global warming on the Indian sub-continent, which has seen an unpredictable monsoon and a rise in extreme events. Some say it is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. In fact the disaster has already happened — in mid-June in India, during the peak tourist and pilgrimage season – flood waters and landslides ripped through the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand causing widespread devastation.

As India surveys the aftermath of the tragedy, there is introspection of what kind of development the country should take to ensure that development does not come at the cost of the environment and human lives.

More at:  http://www.scidev.net/south-asia/environment/multimedia/uttarakhand-a-himalayan-tragedy-1.html

Himalayas need many disaster warning systems

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Athar Parvaiz

This summer’s flash floods spread across the Himalayas –in India, Pakistan and Nepal – have underscored the urgent need to install early warning systems

http://www.thethirdpole.net/himalayas-needs-many-disaster-warning-systems/