The Himalaya

Water Relations and Ecology

Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

Himalaya The Mountain of Diversity

•The Himalaya has been mentioned in many writings, both ancient and modern, scientific and literary, over thousands of years.

•The geographical area covered by this vast mountain range has not been very clearly identified. Efforts in this direction are of recent origin.

Himalaya – the Land - 1

•The Himalayan region (including the Hindu Kush mountain) named as the HKH region, covers an area of 4,192,000 sq. km, spread over Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.

Himalaya – the Rivers - 1 •Helped by the monsoon, the southern aspect of the Himalaya produces per yr probably the largest volume of freshwater flows. Major rivers draining the Himalaya are Huanghe, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, Amu Darya, Tarim etc. Extending from Shanghai to Karachi, their basins serve 3 billion people.

Himalaya, the largest water producer of the world & water tower of Asia

Himalaya – the Rivers - 2 •The larger part of the Himalayan region, the Trans-Himalaya, constitutes a rain shadow. It is cold and very dry.

•Most parts of Trans-Himalaya are in China with an average precipitation of about 175 mms/yr. As economies grow, this inequity has to be addressed, for good water relations in the Himalaya

The path of the monsoon & the Himalaya

http://www.tibetsun.com/features/2013/05/10/the-worlds-third-largest-area-of-ice-is-about-to-undergo-a-systematic-investigation

Annual average precipitation in trans-Himalaya is about 175 mms – rivers depend heavily on snow-glacier melt

In the southern aspect, 175 mm rainfall can occur in just a few hrs

The uplands are scarcely populated – the foothills and floodplains are very dense

Economic Growth in Asia and the Himalayan Rivers

•The rivers like Huang He, Yangtze and Ganges, continue to provide vital water supply to China & India, the two most populated countries of the world, both aiming at 10% economic growth over future decades. This will need planned cooperative use of Himalayan rivers

Global Warming, Climate Change and Himalayan Rivers

•Understanding the impacts of global warming and climate change on the Himalayan rivers is a difficult process.

•Greater annual rainfall and gradual retreat of the glaciers are the basis of forecasting of flow regimes in these rivers under various warming scenarios

The Xiao Lang di dam on Huang He

The Himalayan Rivers in India-Nepal relations

•The relation between India and Nepal is very diverse, in which, water plays a crucial role at micro and macro levels

•Main issues between the two nations are dominated by traditional engg view of dams, irrigation and hydro-power, in addition to flood managemt and transit

Water is immensely useful for livelihood at the micro-level and regularly creates

local level conflicts

River Linking plan of India

Nepal’s rivers are seen as a national capital for supply

of water and power to India

River engineering in India-Nepal relation has remained traditional, no serious effort

on making a sediment policy (Kosi)

India-Nepal Water Relations - 1 the imperative of ecological way ahead

•Water diplomacy/engineering for the Himalayan rivers have stagnated for long as their complex ecology has not been researched in depth. This limits the scope for wise cooperation. May be the large expectations created by traditional engineering need a rethink

India-Nepal Water Relations - 2 the imperative of ecological way ahead

•Way ahead in water relation of India-Nepal depends on broader conceptua-lization of the diverse roles the rivers play, and their ecosystem services

•Construction of projects on the basis of traditional reductionist knowledge may lead to conflicts than cooperation

Wider knowledge of the ecology of Himalayan rivers may convert potential conflicts to

possible cooperation. The ecological details will be of special importance in addressing the

complex and diverse impacts of global warming and climate change on the Himalaya

Thank You