Academic literature on the topic 'Protected areas – Nepal – Himalaya Mountain Region'

Legal protection has been used as means of conserving forests and associated biodiversity in many regions of the world since the eighteenth century. However, most forests in the global south, even those within protected areas, are influenced by human activities. Himalayan forests harbour much of the biodiversity of the region, maintain subsistence livelihoods, and provide regional and global ecosystem services like water regulation, flood control, and carbon sequestration. Yet few studies have quantitatively studied the impacts of legal protection on forest health and biodiversity. We assess woody biodiversity and forest health in relation to legal protection and biomass extraction in forests inside and outside Langtang National Park in Nepal (n = 180). We found more woody species in protected forests. Of the 69 woody species recorded, 47% occurred at both sites. Within protected forests, we found differences in forest health largely related to the intensity of biomass extraction expressed as walking distance to settlement. The closer the forest was to settlements, the heavier degradation it suffered, showing that within agro-forestry systems in the Himalayas, the resource-consumer distance is typically determining the intensity of biomass extraction. Our research brings forth the need to better address the drivers of resource extraction from protected areas in order to mitigate this degradation. It also brings forth the need to contribute to the development of appropriate participatory management programmes outside areas of formal protection in order to sustain both biodiversity and ecosystem service delivery from these forests for the future.

In Nepal, the main disasters are floods, lightning, fire, epidemics, and landslides. Among the several disasters in the Himalayan region, lightning is an important one. Because of the short distance (about 160 km) between the low land and peak Mount Everest from South to North, there is a variation of about 950C temperature in these regions. The topographical features of the southern slopes and variation of temperature within this short distance influences the features of lightning and in this scenario, we get the positive cloud to ground lightning frequently which is more dangerous for human beings, animals, and property. In the Himalayan region, thunderstorms occur near the mountains due to which more positive charge can easily transfer from cloud to ground. Hence positive lightning occurs in the Himalayan region. The majority of the lightning-affected people are unaware of lightning safety and they should know the measures to protect life and property from lightning hazards. Hence by conducting awareness programs for the people of potential hazard areas, the number of injured people can be reduced as well as electrical, medical, military equipment can be somewhat protected from lightning. BIBECHANA 18 (2) (2021) 116-128

Nepal houses only inland freshwater wetlands, ranging from floodplains of snow-melt-fed cold Himalayan rivers, warm rivers originating in the mid hills, high altitudinal glacial lakes to hot springs, ponds, ox-bow lakes, marshes and swamps. These wetlands support several endemic and globally threatened species of flora and fauna. Besides, wetland sites have significant recreational, religio-cultural and spiritual values. There are over 240 wetland sites in Nepal, of which 163 are in the Terai (plain lowland). Wetlands found in Tarai are comparatively more inventoried than the wetlands of mountains and the Himalayan regions of the country. The Terai region (below 300 m) covers about 14% of the country's total area, where half of Nepal's total populations exist. About 11% population of the country is wetland dependent; majority of them are living in the Terai region. The country has nine Ramsar sites, of which, four are in the Tarai region. Among them, two sites (Koshi Tappu wetland, and Beeshazar and associated lakes) lie inside the protected areas and two sites (Ghodaghodi Lake area and Jagadishpur Reservoir) are distributed outside the protected areas. The Koshi Tappu wetland lies along the floodplains of the Sapta Koshi River in the eastern Tarai within the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve. It is the first Ramsar site in Nepal. Beeshazar and associated lakes lies in the buffer zone of the Chitwan National Park along the inner Tarai of Central Nepal. The Ghodaghodi Lake Area (2500 ha) lies in the far western Nepal, and comprises about 14 large and small ox-bow lakes/ponds with associated marshes, swamps, river/streams, springs, seasonal marshy grasslands and human made wetlands, out of them, Ghodaghodi Lake (138 ha) is the largest natural lake in the Nepal's Tarai. The lake system falls between the Bardia National Park and the Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve of the country and the surrounding forest functions as an important corridor for the movement of wildlife between these as well as the Tarai and the northern Siwalik hills. Similarly, the Jagadishpur Reservoir (225 ha) which lies in Central Nepal's Tarai is the largest man-made wetland in Nepal for irrigation purpose. It is an important site for migratory and resident birds. In this paper we highlight the status, threats, conservation issues and management practices of these Ramsar sites lying in Nepal Tarai. Key-words: Ghodaghodi Lake; Jagdishpur Reservoir; Nepal Tarai; outside protected area; wetlands.DOI: 10.3126/botor.v6i0.2914 Botanica Orientalis - Journal of Plant Science (2009) 6: 76-84

Nepal, situated in the Central Himalaya, occupies a total area of 14,718,100 ha. About 86% of the total land area is covered by hills and high mountains, and the remaining 14% are the flat lands of the Terai. Despite the uniqueness and variety of ecosystems across the ecological regions; the ecosystems, are very fragile and prone to degradation both inherently and in response to anthropogenic activities. A product of young geological and adverse climatic conditions, excessive resource use and associated environmental degradation in the country are responsible for the accelerated rate of natural disasters like soil erosion, land degradation and mass wasting, which in turn are making the ecosystems insubstantial. This review therefore aims to provide information on ecosystem restoration needs and initiatives in Nepal. With the existing natural and anthropogenic disturbances that are prevalent in the ecosystems of every ecological regions of Nepal, ecosystem restoration practices are of immediate need. Similarly, restoration approaches are of prime requisite in the protected areas also. Though started in project level basis and in conjunction with cross-cutting programs, ecosystem restoration interventions are in initial stage in Nepal. In this regard, future ecosystem restoration initiatives should be made successful with intensive efforts, appropriate technology and optimum inputs. It will be necessary to identify the areas requiring restoration, and plan for the implementation of appropriate activities for the successful restoration of degraded ecosystems in each ecological regions of Nepal.

Late wintertime diurnal variation and spatial distribution of mountain wave excitations over the Mt. Devchuli range and its surrounding areas have been numerically simulated with the application of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Modeling System. The study reveals that the region holds low-level trapped mountain waves almost all the time. The waves are confined below the stratified layer at about 3km above the mean sea level. Wave excitation over the region is highly active during the afternoon time whereas it remains at minimum level during the late morning time. These waves pose significant risk for low-level aviation and parachuting activities.Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, 2015, 20(1): 102-106

The Himalaya extends from the Pamir in the west to the valley of the Brahmaputra in the east for nearly 2,500 km and passes through Pakistan, India, China, Nepal and Bhutan. The Himalayan area by virtue of its complex geologic structure, snow-capped peaks, a variety of natural landscapes, mountain peoples of unique socio-cultural diversities and adaptation mechanisms has attracted outsiders from the past. The favorable government policies and peaceful native people of the Nepal Himalaya have welcomed thousands of tourists, trekkers and researchers to fulfill their various aspirations and interests. However, the country is often blamed for causing the so-called eco-crisis in the region. During the 1970s and 1980s, publishing several books and articles with attractive titles, some mountain experts showed solidarity with those who propounded a hypothetical theory of Himalayan environmental degradation on the basis of the limited samples collected from a few localities. In this context, the present study is an attempt to review the available literatures and case studies in order to evaluate the potentiality of the so called eco-crisis/environmental degradation in the Nepal Himalaya areas. It also attempts to analyze the present scenarios in relation to the key factors within the area to judge its validity.The Geographical Journal of Nepal Vol. 10: 39-54, 2017

AbstractDue to remoteness and high altitude, only a few ground-based glacier change studies are available in high-mountain areas in the Himalaya. However, digital elevation models based on remotely sensed data (RS-DEMs) provide feasible opportunities to evaluate how fast Himalayan glaciers are changing. Here we compute elevation changes in glacier surface (total area 183.3 km2) in the Khumbu region, Nepal Himalaya, for the period 1992-2008 using multitemporal RS-DEMs and a map-derived DEM calibrated with differential GPS survey data in 2007. Elevation change is calculated by generating a weighted least-squares linear regression model. Our method enables us to provide the distribution of uncertainty of the elevation change. Debris-covered areas show large lowering rates. The spatial distribution of elevation change shows that the different wastage features of the debris-covered glaciers depend on their scale, slope and the existence of glacial lakes. The elevation changes of glaciers in the eastern Khumbu region are in line with previous studies. The regional average mass balance of -0.40 ± 0.25 m w.e.a-1 for the period 1992-2008 is consistent with a global value of about -0.55 m w.e. a-1 for the period 1996-2005.

The Budhi Gandaki-Narayani Nadi in the Central Nepal flows across fold-thrust belts of the Tethys Himalaya, Higher Himalaya, Lesser Himalaya, and the Sub-Himalaya, and is located in sub-tropical to humid sub-tropical climatic zone. Within the Higher Himalayas and the Lesser Himalayas, a high mountain and hilly region give way the long high-gradient, the Budhi Gandaki Nadi in the northern region. At the southern region within the Sub-Himalayas, having a wide Dun Valley, gives way the long low-gradient Narayani Nadi. Sands from Budhi Gandaki-Narayani Nadi were obtained and analysed for textural maturity and compositional maturity. The textural analyses consisted of determining roundness and sphere city of quartz grains for shape, and determining size of sand for matrix percent and various statistical measures including sorting. The analysis indicates that the textural maturity of the majority of sands lies in sub mature category though few textural inversions are also remarkable. Sands from upstream to downstream stretches of the main stem river show depositional processes by graded suspension in highly turbulent (saltation) current to fluvial tractive current, as confirmed from the C-M patterns. The compositional variation includes quartz, feldspar, rock fragments, mica, etc. The quartz grain percent slightly increases from the mountains to the lower relief areas. The percent feldspar decreases rapidly whereas the percent rock fragment decreases gradually along the downstream transport of sediment. The Budhi Gandaki-Narayani Nadi sands range from sublitharenite to lithic arenite composition in QFL diagram, and are remarkably poorer in feldspar compared to rock fragment. Among the rock fragments, the high-grade metamorphic rock fragmentsare dominant in the upstream stretch of the main stem Narayani Nadi stretch while the sedimentary lithics are remarkable in the downstream stretch. The QFL plots also show that the studied sands belong to recycled orogeny provenance and agree with the current tectonic setting of the Himalayas. Mineralogically, the sands (MMI=100%–203%) are not as matured as the normal sands. MMI fluctuates along downstream distance due to mixing of sediments from the major tributaries at various places along the main stem river.

The Budhi Gandaki-Narayani Nadi in the Central Nepal flows across fold-thrust belts of the Tethys Himalaya, Higher Himalaya, Lesser Himalaya, and the Sub-Himalaya, and is located in sub-tropical to humid sub-tropical climatic zone. Within the Higher Himalayas and the Lesser Himalayas, a high mountain and hilly region give way the long high-gradient, the Budhi Gandaki Nadi in the northern region. At the southern region within the Sub-Himalayas, having a wide Dun Valley, gives way the long low-gradient Narayani Nadi. Sands from Budhi Gandaki-Narayani Nadi were obtained and analysed for textural maturity and compositional maturity. The textural analyses consisted of determining roundness and sphere city of quartz grains for shape, and determining size of sand for matrix percent and various statistical measures including sorting. The analysis indicates that the textural maturity of the majority of sands lies in sub mature category though few textural inversions are also remarkable. Sands from upstream to downstream stretches of the main stem river show depositional processes by graded suspension in highly turbulent (saltation) current to fluvial tractive current, as confirmed from the C-M patterns. The compositional variation includes quartz, feldspar, rock fragments, mica, etc. The quartz grain percent slightly increases from the mountains to the lower relief areas. The percent feldspar decreases rapidly whereas the percent rock fragment decreases gradually along the downstream transport of sediment. The Budhi Gandaki-Narayani Nadi sands range from sublitharenite to lithic arenite composition in QFL diagram, and are remarkably poorer in feldspar compared to rock fragment. Among the rock fragments, the high-grade metamorphic rock fragmentsare dominant in the upstream stretch of the main stem Narayani Nadi stretch while the sedimentary lithics are remarkable in the downstream stretch. The QFL plots also show that the studied sands belong to recycled orogeny provenance and agree with the current tectonic setting of the Himalayas. Mineralogically, the sands (MMI=100%–203%) are not as matured as the normal sands. MMI fluctuates along downstream distance due to mixing of sediments from the major tributaries at various places along the main stem river.

Earth observation plays an important role in understanding earth as a system by providing repetitive and consistent view throughout the globe for regular assessment and monitoring. There are a number of initiatives working globally to facilitate and promote the earth observation applications. SERVIR is one such global initiative evolved through partnership between USAID and NASA with an overarching goal to improve environmental management and resilience to climate change. SERVIR-Himalaya is being implemented by ICIMOD to provide integrated and innovative geospatial solutions for generation and dissemination of information and knowledge resources on mountain environments in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region. The SERVIR applications are focused on the broad thematic areas which are also subset of the societal benefit areas of Global Earth Observation (GEO), namely - agriculture and food security, ecosystems and sustainable landscapes, and disaster risk management. Some of its applications in Nepal include agriculture drought monitoring; land cover dynamics; biomass estimation at local and national scales; climate change vulnerability to forest ecosystems; multi-scale disaster risk assessment; and forest fire detection and monitoring. Access to these applications and data are facilitated through ICIMOD’s Mountain Geoportal and Regional Database System. Regional and national training and workshops, on-the-job training, internships and exchange programs and technical backstopping are key capacity building components to enhance the capacity of national institutions in the regional member countries. These efforts are also seen as receiving feedback on the science applications, identify additional needs, and increase synergy by exploring opportunities for collaboration.Nepalese Journal on Geoinformatics, Vol. 14, 2015, Page: 8-12