To meet surging domestic energy demand, provide power to the largest population in the world that lacks electricity (> 400 million people), and reduce rapidly growing CO2 emissions, the Government of India (GOI) has embarked on a fast-track dam-building program.

Studying diversity and distribution patterns of species along elevational gradients and understanding drivers behind these patterns is central to macroecology and conservation biology. A number of studies on biogeographic gradients are available for terrestrial ecosystems, but freshwater ecosystems remain largely neglected. In particular, we know very little about the species richness gradients and their drivers in the Himalaya, a global biodiversity hotspot.