Prakash C. Tiwari

Innovation as an Expression of Adaptive Capacity to Change in Himalayan Farming

Abstract Recent studies of future food production in South Asia generally agree that the conditions for production will radically change in the years to come, in particular due to climate change and market variations. However, because we do not know how conditions will be modified and what adaptations will be required by farmers, the article assumes that innovative farming systems will cope best with changes, whatever those changes turn out to be. The challenge, then, is to identify circumstances that either promote or hamper innovation. A comparative analysis of 2 farming communities in the Himalayas concludes that no single parameter can explain the observed variation of agricultural innovation. Rather than restricting analyses to “innovation systems” that consist of social institutions only, the article proposes an approach that includes social actors, as well as natural resources, in processes that produce “innovative places.” In this study, water availability, farm size, and an active national nongovernmental organization are parameters that encourage innovation.

Spatial variability assessment of river‐line floods and flash floods in Himalaya

Purpose – The main objective of the study is to identify the vulnerable areas for river‐line and flash flood hazard and its mitigation through GIS Database Management System (DBMS) of geo‐hydrometeorological parameters. The Dabka watershed constitutes a part of the Kosi Basin in the Lesser Himalaya, India in district Nainital has been selected for the case illustration.Design/methodology/approach – The Dabka DBMS is constituted of three GIS (Geographic Information System) modules, i.e. geo‐informatics (consists of geomorphology, soils, geology and land use pattern, slope analysis, drainage density and drainage frequency), weather informatics (consists of daily, monthly and annual weather data about temperature, rainfall, humidity and evaporation) and hydro‐informatics (consist of runoff, sediment delivery, and denudation). The geo‐informatics and weather informatics modules carried out by comprehensive field work and GIS mapping than both modules used to carry out hydro‐informatics module. Through the int...

Environmental Changes and their Impact on Rural Water, Food, Livelihood, and Health Security in Kumaon Himalayas

Population growth and the resultant land use intensications have been identied as major drivers of environmental changes in densely populated Middle Himalayan Ranges. Study carried out in Upper Kosi Catchment (107.94 km 2 ), in Kumaon Himalaya, India indicated that 3.34% forests have been converted into cultivated and degraded land during last 30 years. �ese land use changes have not only reduced the availability of biomass manure to agriculture, but also caused severe depletion of water resources through reduced groundwater recharge. Nearly 33% natural springs have dried and as many as 61% villages have been facing great scarcity of water for drinking, sanita- tion as well as for crop production. As a result, food production has decreased by 25%, and livelihood opportunities in traditional forestry and agricultural sectors declined considerably. �ese situations are increasing the vulnerability of large rural population, particularly poor, landless and socially marginalized communities to food, livelihood and health insecurity.

Land-Use Changes and Their Impact on Water Resources in Himalaya

This chapter attempts to assess the impacts of land-use dynamics on the environmental status and availability of water resources in Himalaya with a case illustration of Upper Kosi catchment in Kumaon Himalaya. The study used remote sensing and field-based techniques along with qualitative and quantitative empirical methods. The results indicated that population growth and the resultant increased demand of natural resources have brought about rapid land-use changes decreasing forests (4.36 %), extending cultivation (14.33 %) and increasing wastelands and degraded lands (2.18 %). These land-use changes have disrupted the hydrological regime of the catchment through increased run-off and decreased groundwater recharge and caused severe depletion of water resources. Nearly 33 % of natural springs have dried and 11 % have become seasonal, and 7.36 km stream length has dried during the last 30 years. Consequently, as many as 61 % villages have been facing great scarcity of water for drinking, sanitation as well as for crop production, and this situation turns into a severe water crisis during dry summer months. The catchment has lost 18 % of its irrigation potential due to drying of streams and springs resulting in a 25 % decline in food production which has resulted in a 32 % food deficit during 1981 and 2011. A comprehensive land-use policy based on the integrated management of land, water and forest resources needs to be evolved and implemented for the conservation and sustainable development of water resources in the region.

Climate change accelerating land use dynamic and its environmental and socio‐economic risks in the Himalayas

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to assess the environmental and socio‐economic impacts and risks of climate change through GIS database management system (DBMS) on land use‐informatics and climate‐informatics. The Dabka watershed constitutes a part of the Kosi Basin in the Lesser Himalaya, India in district Nainital has been selected for the case illustration.Design/methodology/approach – Land use‐informatics consists of land use mapping and change diction, i.e. decadal changes and annual changes. Climate‐informatics consists of climate change detection through daily, monthly and annual weather data for a period of 25 years.Findings – The exercise revealed that oak and pine forests have decreased, respectively, by 25 percent (4.48 km2) and 3 percent (0.28 km2) thus bringing a decline of 4.76 km2 forest in the watershed during 1990 to 2010. But, due to climate change the mixed forest taking place of oak forest in certain pockets and consequently the mixed forest in the catchment increased by 18 perce...

Gender processes in rural out-migration and socio-economic development in the Himalaya

In the Himalaya, due to constraints of subsistence economy a large proportion of youth male population out-migrates in search of livelihood. Women are therefore considered as primary resource developers, and they make implicit contribution towards mountain economy. However, women enjoy a highly restricted ownership of natural resources and limited access to the opportunities of social and economic development, and this further leads to the feminization of poverty. Moreover, depletion of natural resources and climate change have further accelerated the trends of male out-migration which have enhanced women’s roles, and responsibilities and increased their workload rendering them more vulnerable to environmental changes. However, this study found that the increasing trends of male out-migration not only provided stability to rural economies in terms of remittances, but also marginally improved women’s access to education, development opportunities, leadership, decision-making power, natural resource management and growing market. These changes are contributing towards social, economic and political empowerment of rural women. Furthermore, women have developed critical traditional knowledge to understand, visualize and respond to environmental changes including the climate change. Hence, it is highly imperative to improve rural livelihood in rural areas, and extend the good practices of women’s mainstreaming in other areas across the Himalayan mountains.

Climate Change and Rural Out-migration in Himalaya

Abstract This paper examines linkages between climate change and rural out-migration in Himalaya. Subsistence agriculture constitutes the main source of food and rural livelihoods in the region although the availability of arable land is severely limited and crop productivity is low. The constraints of the subsistence economy compel a large proportion of the adult male population to outmigrate from the mountain region in search of livelihoods and employment. Changing climatic conditions have stressed Himalayan agricultural and livelihood systems through higher mean annual temperatures and melting of glaciers and snow, altered precipitation patterns and hydrological disruptions, and more frequent and severe extreme weather events. The amount of rainfall events and number of rainy days has declined respectively by 52% and 34% during the last ten years and the incidence of high intensity rainfall and droughts have increased. These changes have disrupted the hydrological systems and reduced the availability of water resulting in frequent crop failures, declines in irrigation potential (25%), decreased agricultural productivity (26%), and loss of rural livelihoods (34%) in traditional rural sectors. These pressures have contributed to increasing trends of rural out-migration, specifically an overall increase of 2536% between 2001 and 2013. The increasing trend of outmigration among male youth has affected the quality of life of rural women through feminization of mountain agriculture and resource development processes.

Rainfall Variability, Landslides and Food Security in Himalaya

In Himalaya, increasing rainfall variability has accelerated landslide activity damaging cultivated land and devastating agricultural infrastructure. Paper aims to analyze rainfall variability and interpret its linkages with landslides and food security with an example of Kumaon Himalaya. Food security in the region depends on local agricultural production, food purchasing power, and road connectivity. Study revealed that both number of rainy days as well as amount of rainfall reduced respectively by 18% and 25% during last 10 years, but incidences of high intensity rainfall, cloud bursts and flash floods have increased. This has triggered landside activity devastating 4.83ha cultivated land, 800m canals length and 3,891m road network ever year. Consequently, food production has declined by 15% rendering 45% families highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Adaptive agricultural land use planning and diversification and improvement of rural livelihood could reduce vulnerability of mountain communities to climate change and food insecurity.

Assessing livelihood-ecosystem interdependencies and natural resource governance in Indian villages in the Middle Himalayas

Mountains host high biological and cultural diversity, generating ecosystem services providing benefits over multiple scales but also suffering significant poverty and vulnerabilities. Case studies in two contrasting village communities in the Indian Middle Himalayas explore linkages between people and adjacent forest and river ecosystems. Interviews with local people and direct observations revealed low food availability and decreasing self-sufficiency, under the combined pressures of increasing foraging by wildlife (primarily pigs and monkeys) coupled with seasonal to permanent outmigration by younger men seeking more secure income and alternative livelihoods. Much of the income remitted by migrants to their villages was not retained locally but flowed back out of the Himalayan region through purchases of food produced and marketed in the plains. This threatens the economic viability of villages, also placing asymmetric pressures on resident female, elderly and young people who concentrate labour on local livestock production to the neglect of crop agriculture, further compounding land abandonment and wildlife foraging. Significant traditional knowledge remains, along with utilitarian, cultural and spiritual connections with the landscape. Many beneficiaries of locally produced ecosystem services are remote from village communities (particularly water flows downstream to the plains), but no recompense is paid to stewards of the forested Himalayan landscape. Although local people currently perceive high biodiversity as a constraint to agriculture and other economic activities, the Himalayan landscapes could potentially constitute an asset with appropriate institutional development through promotion of managed bioprospecting, guided ecotourism and payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes for water supply and under REDD+.

Urban Growth in Himalaya: Understanding the Process and Options for Sustainable Development

During recent years, urbanization has emerged as one of the important drivers of global environmental change transforming mountain regions, particularly in developing countries where the process of urban-growth has been fast but mostly unsystematic, unplanned and unregulated. Himalaya representing tectonically alive, densely populated, and one of the most marginalized mountain regions of the world has experienced rapid urban growth during last three decades. More recently, comparatively less accessible areas have also come under the process of rapid urbanization mainly owing to improved road connectivity, publicity and marketing of new tourist sites and the resultant growth of domestic as well as international tourism; development of horticulture; economic globalization and gradual shi from primary resource development practices to secondary and tertiary sectors; and due to absence of urban land use policy. Consequently, there has been tremendous increase in size, area, number and complexity of urban settlements in the Himalaya resulting into the expansion of urban processes (i.e., expansion of urban land use in surrounding agricultural zone, forests and rural environments) as well as increase in the intensity of urban land use (i.e., increase in the density of covered area, density of building, and increase in the density of population) within the towns. On the one hand, the growing urban areas in high mountain are now serving as the centres of growth by creating opportunities of employment, variety of socio-economic services and expansion of infrastructure; and contributing towards the development of their vast hinterland through trickledown e ect; while on the other, the sprawling urban growth in fragile mountains has disrupted the critical ecosystem services. e speedy and unplanned urbanization has perturbed the hydrological regimes of Himalayan watersheds and reduced ground water recharge, and decreased the availability of water for drinking, sanitation and crop production; depleted forests and biodiversity; increased risks of natural hazards and disasters both in urban areas as well as in their peri-urban zones; and increased vulnerability of mountain inhabitants to water, food, livelihood and health insecurity. Moreover, climate change has stressed urban ecosystems by increasing the frequency, severity and intensity of extreme weather events. As in other parts of the world, urban growth cannot be stopped or reduced in Himalaya, but it can be steered in a more sustainable manner through an integrated urban-rural land use planning. E ective land use policies need to be evolved and implemented for the protection and conservation of forests, biodiversity, water resources and agricultural land.