North-western Himalayan region with its wide range of altitudes, topography and climatic conditions, is a rich repository of medicinal wealth, which occupies an important place in Vedic treatise. More than 800 no. valuable medicinal species found in this part of India is extensively used by the locals since time immemorial for curing various diseases of humankind.
A short study was undertaken from December 2004 to April 2005, to assess the species diversity and composition of freshwater fishes in three tributaries of Ramganga river in the foothills of Western Himalaya. One tributary was within a protected area (PA; Corbett National Park); the other two were outside the PA (Lansdowne Forest Division).
The study reports the impact of migratory livestock in the buffer area of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. The cumulative impacts of livestock grazing, fuel wood extraction and other anthropogenic pressures on forest cover in and around camping sites have been analyzed using satellite data and field observations.
Soil and water are the two important natural resources, which are the backbone of the Indian agriculture. The prime cause for the backwardness of the farmers is reduction in soil fertility and productivity, due to massive soil erosion. Most of the farmers are depending mainly on renewable natural resources for their livelihoods. The inhabitants of the foothill region of Northwest Himalayas have degraded lands, fragmented and small land holdings and are generally resource poor.
The genus Quercus (oak) is a large group of hardwood trees with about 600 species worldwide1. In the Himalayan region, extensive oak forests (35 species) occur between 1500 and 3300 m elevations. Of the various species of oaks, the white oak or banj (Q. leucotrichophora) forms an extensive belt along the middle elevation (1200
Nearly two dozen people are missing while thousands of sheep, goat and other livestock have perished in unprecedented snowfall which caught lakhs of Gujjars and Bakerwals unawares on the north western Himalayas, which divide Jammu region from Kashmir valley.
Landscape changes were measured in two watersheds of western Himalayas over a period of 17 years using satellite images. Whereas the total forest cover was found to have been altered, there was substantial shift
This document contains the presentation by A.P.Dimri on "Wintertime Climatic Analysis over the Western Himalayas", presented at National Climate Research Conference, IIT Delhi, March 5-6, 2010.
This paper presents a method for deriving the snowline altitude using a combined analysis of terrain elevation and multispectral Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data from the RESOURCESAT-1 satellite, launched by India on 17 October 2003. AWiFS is a unique instrument capable of acquiring imagery of the world repeatedly every 5 days with very high radiometric resolution.
New Delhi: With the last spell of fog on January 27 and 28, this month is now officially the foggiest since the 1960s, having clocked a total of 172 hours of below 200 m visibility. The good news is that the Met department does not foresee too many dense fog spells in the remaining days of the month.
