Blue sheep, locally known as bharal, are wild mountain ungulates which are, in fact, more closely related to goats than sheep. They reside in the Himalayas and are the main…
Ample snowfall in the hilly state of Uttarakhand for the second consecutive year has come as a shot in the arm for the region’s deteriorating ecosystem. Uttarakhand received six times…
Every year, Mansi Sharma and her sister Surabhi take at least two trips to Landour (next to Mussoorie) where, for a few days, they just spend their time wandering in…
Long-term rural extraction of biomass in oak-dominated Himalayan forests disturbs the forest structure. This, in turn, affects diversity and composition of insect-eating birds and oak forest specialists, which were the…
As India pursues the development of the 5,040-megawatt Pancheshwar dam on the India-Nepal border, a new study has warned that if executed in its current form, the proposed dam is…
Twenty-seven-year-old progressive woman farmer Ranjana Kukreti is ecstatic with the fresh produce from her 1.5-acre farm and greenhouse in the Himalayan foothills in Uttarakhand. In the climate-controlled and meticulously monitored…
Under the watchful gaze of Indian researchers, six one-hectare plots, earmarked deep inside the undisturbed forests of Uttarakhand in the western Himalayas, have set the ball rolling for long-term monitoring…
Climate change adaptation policies for farmers in the Himalayas should cater to the differences in their household resources and farming practices, states a study that has conducted a new survey…
Anita Devi gently opens the small muslin cloth. A bunch of thin, dusty caterpillars, speckled with a white mould and a slender grey tip come in view. Her son, Pratham…
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has asked Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh (UP) state governments to ensure a pollution-free Ganga for bathing during the upcoming Ardh Kumbh festival in UP’s…
The Himalayas support about 20 percent of the world’s population. But the ecologically fragile region, the storehouse of the third highest amount of frozen water on earth, is highly vulnerable…
It was when I first read an article in Down To Earth some years ago that I got interested in the people who lived in the hills of the Western…
The frequency of extreme weather events is going up around the world, and droughts and heatwaves are no exception. When the globe warms by 3-4 degrees - a possibility during…
A team of scientists has generated a soil loss map of Uttarakhand, a state in the northwest Himalayas that often makes headlines for devastating landslides and floods that sweep away…
While air pollution in metropolitan cities like Delhi has hogged the headlines over the past few years, we don’t know much about how our emissions from various activities are affecting…
The upcoming 900 kilometre-long Char Dham highway project, is being seen as a strategic attempt to bolster preparation of India’s security forces at the India-China border, apart from increasing tourist…
Once a haven for pilgrims, the quiet town of Kedarnath in the northern state of Uttarakhand is now abuzz with the sound of helicopters. Hundreds of tourists are ferried on…
H.P. Upreti, an ex-serviceman lives in the Shakti Vihar locality of the Srinagar town of Uttarakhand. He vividly recalls the day, five years ago, when one of the worst natural…
Take a disaster-prone area, add some lax administration and generous helpings of construction projects and voila! What do you get? Uttarakhand, the north Indian hill state which is a perfect…
Is it going to be a new wave of development in the region or is it an environmental disaster in the making? The 5,040 megawatt (MW) Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project (PMP),…