BLOG
Lying on opposite banks of the Mechi River, the Naxalbari block (of West Bengal) in eastern India and the Jhapa district of eastern Nepal are en route to the Mahananda-Kolabari-Mechi transboundary passage for elephants in the eastern Himalayan foothills. Both locations witness regular elephant incursions damaging properties and destroying crop fields. The latter is a matter of grave concern, especially for the smallholder farmers on both sides of the river.
When their paddy and maize crops ripen, the farmers spend nights guarding the crop from elephants. Traditionally, they would build makeshift elevated structures of bamboo or tarpaulin near their crop fields to serve as watchtowers. But these structures can barely withstand the often-turned-lethal human-elephant conflicts, not to mention the exposure to snake and insect bites.
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) collaborated with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) to construct six concrete-built watchtowers in the Naxalbari block to provide safe and durable vantage points to local farmers for guarding their crops. This endeavour took off with ICIMOD Director General, Pema Gyamtsho, officially launching the construction of a new watchtower on 4 October 2024.
The new watchtowers are an architectural novelty to these remote locations that are predominantly reliant on temporary polyethene, wood or bamboo structures to serve the purpose of (crop) surveillance. The new towers, in contrast, can provide additional facilities such as solar-powered LED lights, and emergency shelters (with kitchens and safe storage spaces) to the villagers during elephant raids, besides being sturdy and better-elevated observation towers vis-à-vis the temporary structures. Voluntary involvement of the villagers -be it in guarding the construction sites from vandalism or in helping to cure concrete structures for durability - during the construction of the new watchtowers spoke volumes of how strongly they felt the need for such facilities that can potentially provide more safety and security for lives, livelihoods and property.
In fact, local communities had strongly expressed the need for tenable solutions to manage the risks of human-elephant conflicts at the various consultation sessions co-organised by ICIMOD and ATREE for piloting strategies for human-elephant coexistence. In tandem, ICIMOD partnered with local authorities on both India and Nepal sides in initiatives to nudge changes in community attitudes and behaviour toward managing elephant incursions.
In the Naxalbari block, for instance, the local authorities complemented ICIMOD’s initiatives by installing solar irrigation pumps to encourage farmers into growing alternative crops less attractive to elephants, and by placing solar streetlights in the vulnerable settlements to reduce accidental human-elephant encounters. Three solar irrigation pump sets and 40 solar streetlights were installed with funding support from the Department of Water Resources Investigation and Development (DWRID), Government of West Bengal and the Naxalbari Block Development Office, respectively.
The local government also allocated funds for setting up market stalls where farmers can sell the alternative crops and launched habitat restoration projects. These efforts have encouraged many farmers to resume farming that they had stopped in apprehension of elephant raids.
Just across the Mechi river, farmers in Bahundangi village of the Jhapa district of Nepal can also harvest their crops without fearing heavy economic losses due to elephant encounters, now. Thanks to the seasonal fences installed with ICIMOD’s support. Simultaneously, ICIMOD has succeeded in fostering widespread awareness about human-elephant ‘co-existence’ through a range of initiatives starting from the inclusion of lessons on coexistence in school curriculum to supporting the Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) for managing human-elephant encounters so that the villagers can do away with hostile practices like using firecrackers to scare off elephants.
There is a positive perceptual change among the local communities – elephants are now treated as animals displaced by shrinking habitats and dwindling food sources, rather than as ‘incursors to be thwarted’. From a hotspot of human-elephant conflicts, Bahundangi is now Mechinagar municipality’s ‘model village’ of human-elephant coexistence.
With best practice cases like Naxalbari and Bahundangi on hand, ICIMOD is pursuing a holistic approach that pools together a combination of proactive initiatives such as, the construction of durable, multi-functional watchtowers, encouraging farmers in adopting crops less appealing to elephants, capacity building for human-wildlife sensitisation, advocacy and monitoring, leveraging government support, and nudging changes in community attitudes towards managing human-elephant encounters. These complementary actions are shaping up an ethos of human-wildlife coexistence along the Mechi River corridor of the eastern Himalayan foothills.
Air pollution remains one of the most persistent and pressing challenges in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. The region is caught in a recurring cycle of toxic air, with pollution levels peaking twice a year, between October to November and from March to April. March–April pollution surge is largely driven by widespread forest fires, which have been increasing each year due to drier winters, creating a layer of tiny particles, obstructing the visibility called haze. This haze can be composed of various particles, including dust, smoke, aerosols, and smog. For the October–November period, the pollution spike is largely attributed to agricultural residue burning across the Indo Gangetic Plains (IGP) countries, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, as farmers prepare their fields for the next cropping cycle. Although these burnings are localised, their effects are widespread, affecting the HKH region with adverse environmental, socio-economic, and health consequences.
November 2024 recorded PM2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less) air pollutant concentrations exceeding 500 µg/m3 in Lahore, Pakistan, and New Delhi, India, as recorded by AirNow. Peak haze (slight obscuration of the lower atmosphere) and air pollution levels occurred in mid-November 2025, aligning with burning activity. The haze then moved eastward across the IGP, with rising PM2.5 concentrations in downstream cities. Dhaka, Bangladesh, recorded a noticeable rise in particulate pollution following November 12, indicating regional movement of the air pollutants. This spatial and temporal pattern confirms that the agricultural residue-driven haze events contribute to air pollution across the IGP region.
From the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imaging data, we can see how the haze over the region decreases as the crop burning period ends. In early November 2025, satellite data captured a thick haze spreading across the IGP. Between November 4 and 7, over 1,250 active fires were recorded, indicating widespread agricultural residue burning. The haze persisted through the month, peaking in intensity toward the end of November. Although cloud cover briefly masked the smoke in NASA imagery, the haze became visible again by the first week of December. As fire activity declined to just under 200 counts, visibility improved noticeably.
The pattern tells a clear story: more stubble (agricultural residue) burning leads to heavier haze. The data reinforce what is increasingly evident: agricultural fires are a major contributor to regional air pollution, with serious consequences for health and the environment.
In the broader context of climate change and air pollution impacts, it is unfair to highlight agricultural residue burning without acknowledging pollution from road traffic and industries. However, the challenge of agricultural residue burning persists and remains a significant contributor to air pollution. While its impact may be smaller compared to other sources, it is an issue that can be addressed through coordinated efforts involving the government, the private sector, and farmers.
Unfortunately, discussions on agricultural residue burning, air pollution, and health impacts often overlook the struggles of farmers. Farmers' continued reliance on burning stubble, particularly in the IGP, is driven by a complex interplay of cultural norms, economic constraints, labour shortages, and tight timelines between crop cycles. The practice of burning is perceived as a quick and cost-effective way to clear large volumes of agricultural residues for the next crop season. In most parts of the IGP, wheat is planted right after rice is harvested, within approximately 20 days.
Stubble burning persists due to several challenges, including limited awareness among farmers about its environmental and health impacts, and the widespread myth that burning returns nutrients to the soil. While subsidies exist, tools like straw choppers and balers remain costly and out of reach for many small-scale farmers. Weak market linkages for stubble, especially paddy straw, further reduce motivation for sustainable management. The transitions to alternatives for agricultural residue burning remain hindered by inadequate and fragmented policy support, particularly limited financial incentives and weak market development are making adoption difficult for farmers and stakeholders.
There are promising solutions, such as affordable residue management technologies to policy innovations and community-led initiatives that are showing real potential to reduce stubble burning and improve air quality.
The innovative approach of turning agricultural residue into pellets is emerging as an ambitious alternative to burning fossil fuels, creating more green jobs, improving soil health and air quality, and a home-grown economy resulting in lesser dependency on fossil fuel imports. Converting the paddy stubble into high-density pellets reduces agricultural residue burning and helps in combating the associated air pollution by substituting fossil fuel in the industries, which further thrives the clean and green environment. The integration of agricultural residues into the energy matrix can enhance energy security and diversification of energy sources. As global energy demands increase, the reliance on traditional energy sources can pose risks to energy security.
While pelletisation is promising, there are challenges, such as transportation and storage costs, and availability of pelletisation facilities. Besides, only a handful of machinery is deployed at available pelletisation facilities, so not all farmers have access to such machinery. These factors contribute to farmers' hesitation to adopt pelleting, despite awareness.
There are also other sustainable agricultural residue management practices where agricultural residues are left in the field to naturally decompose, which improves soil health and fertility over time. Unlike burning, this approach reduces environmental pollution and enhances productivity through methods like mulching, no-till farming, and crop rotation. This approach is encouraged as studies show they can boost cereal grain yields by up to 37% and significantly cut soil erosion and carbon emissions. However, adoption remains limited due to low farmer awareness, lack of machinery access, and competing uses for residues such as livestock fodder.
Biochar is the other promising ex-situ solution for managing agricultural residue, where biomass residue is converted into carbon-rich materials to use as fertiliser in the field. This addresses the residue disposal issue while improving soil fertility, productivity, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Studies show biochar can increase average yields by 11% and cut 12% of human-induced emissions annually. However, high production costs and variable performance limit widespread adoption. Collaborations with research institutions and international bodies, along with strong policy support, are essential to improve production standards, build capacity, and make biochar a viable tool for sustainable agriculture and climate action.
Scaling up the agricultural residue management solutions will require government support to get them off the ground. The issue of low supply of the paddy straw stubble used in the productive sector is addressed through the awareness and capacity building of farmers, but the effort is insufficient. Thus, IGP countries' strict regulations, such as mandatory enforcement of agro residue-based biomass pellets in the co-firing, and 7–20% use in thermal power plants and brick kilns could advance the scaling up of pelletisation. This enforcement would create significant market demand for the paddy straw pellets, attracting interested investors to get engaged in the paddy straw-based pellet production.
Managing agricultural residue needs to be heavily subsidised to offset related costs. Countries in the IGP are increasingly opting for strict rules to control open agricultural residue burning. In India, the open burning of agricultural residue can be reported as a crime. With farmers facing threats of fines and imprisonment, it has become almost impossible to engage in constructive dialogue, and it has further alienated the farming community. A more effective approach to rewarding farmers for not burning agricultural residue can foster collaboration and cooperation.
Control agricultural residue burning and solving the smog and haze problem will require putting farmers at the centre of the conversation. Innovation and policy commitment, along with strong monitoring tools, are the keys to cleaner air and a healthier environment.
Understanding and addressing farmers’ challenges is only the beginning. The available solutions are showing promise in addressing the current haze crisis, but these are not standalone or long-term solutions. The need to invest in research and development to explore more sustainable alternatives is ever pressing. Long-term solutions must address the cause, and not just manage symptoms.
The World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report predicts worsening repercussions of climate extremes in Asia, warming twice as fast as the global average. The findings of the report corroborate ICIMOD’s 2025 HKH Snow Update and 2025 Monsoon Outlook, both forecasting escalating likelihood of (water-related) calamities for the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region of Asia, in particular.
Continent ‘hit hard by rising temperatures and extreme weather’, states the United Nations’ authority on climate, weather, and water, as weather extremes ranging from prolonged heatwaves, and droughts, to rain cause “havoc”, “heavy casualties”, “destruction” and “heavy economic and agricultural losses” across the continent.
While floods in Asia in 2024 were among the most severe precipitation-related events recorded since 1949, 4.8 million people were affected by drought in China in 2024, Myanmar set a new temperature record of 48.2ºC, and the Urumqi Glacier No.1 in China’s Eastern Tian Shan recorded most negative mass balance since records began in 1959, among other calamities.
In the HKH region, 23 out of 24 High Mountain Asia glaciers show continued mass loss. Reduced winter snowfall and extreme summer heat intensified losses in most of Nepal, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in China and Sikkim in India, among other high-altitude areas in the central Himalayas.
The WMO report finds a belt of below-average snow cover extent (SCE) from western to eastern parts of Asia, with negative SCE anomalies dominating the central and the middle Himalayas in 2024. In tandem, ICIMOD’s 2025 HKH Snow Update, finds November 2024 – March 2025 to be the vicennial-record-low snow season in the HKH with a snow persistence of -23.6%, besides being the third consecutive year of negative snow anomaly in the region. Persisting and alarming extents of anomalies are observed in river basins like Mekong (-51.9%), Brahmaputra (-27.9%), Yangtze (-26.3%), Ganges (-24.1%), Amu Darya (-18.8%), Indus (-16.0%), where seasonal snow melts are crucial for agriculture, hydropower generation and other critical ecosystem services.
Sher Muhammad, Remote Sensing Specialist at ICIMOD says, “These observations largely coincide with what is being seen across the HKH region as well. Seasonal snowmelt contributes approximately 25 % of annual river flows on average across the HKH, rising even higher in western basins—yet continual snow deficits are eroding this critical source, triggering early-summer water shortages, heat stress, and worry among downstream communities.”
This is worrying news for countries like China and Afghanistan, already exposed to long-term water stress and droughts conditions. According to the WMO report, in 2024 Western and south-western Afghanistan saw more frequent sand and dust storms than average, possibly linked to long-term drought conditions. On the other hand, the Yunnan and southern Sichuan Provinces in China experienced both winter and spring droughts, while in August 2024, drought intensified in Sichuan, the Yangtze River, and Chongqing – leading to economic losses of 2.89 billion Yuan. Persistently below-normal precipitation being a key driver of these droughts.
While WMO reports considerable variation in precipitation anomalies in 2024 - Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta experiencing above-normal rainfall vis-à-vis China’s Altyn-Tagh and Kunlun Mountains between the Tibetan Plateau and the Tarim Basin, along with Pakistan’s western Himalayas and Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains recording below-normal precipitations – ICIMOD’s 2025 Monsoon Outlook predicts a wetter and hotter summer monsoon between June and September 2025 for most of the HKH countries, with the 2024 hotspots of rainfall anomalies, as identified in the WMO report, remaining unchanged.
Nepal, for instance, that saw incidents of mudslides, waterlogging and sedimentation, and faced significant damages and economic losses due to excess rainfall in 2024, is again likely to receive above-average rainfall this year, along with India, China’s TAR and most of Pakistan (a country also imperiled by precipitation-induced floods in 2024). On the other hand, among countries / areas predicted to experience below average rainfall is the already drought-affected Afghanistan with severe dryness likely to persist in its western parts.
Simultaneously, the Monsoon Outlook predicts temperature anomalies in South Asia, including the HKH, to range between 0.5⁰ and 2⁰C above the long term-average, during June - September 2025. This prediction comes on the back of WMO’s report of frequent incidents of heatwave outbreaks across China, India and Myanmar in 2024, alongside sea-surface temperature rise in Asia at nearly double the global mean rate.
With the findings from all these reports pointing to the ever-heightening propensity of climate extremes and catastrophes in the HKH region under the irreversible effects of accelerating climate change, anticipatory lifesaving and support actions are the need of the hour. Work of national meteorological and hydrological services and their partners is becoming “more important than ever”, states WMO Secretary General, Professor Celeste Saulo, in this context.
According to Saswata Sanyal, Disaster Risk Reduction Lead, “The WMO report rightly emphasises the urgent need for anticipatory action in the face of escalating climate-induced disasters. This proactive approach is crucial for anticipating and mitigating disaster impacts before they fully unfold. ICIMOD recently joined the Intergovernmental Organizations' Cooperation on Anticipatory Action to further 'acting ahead of a predicted hazardous event to prevent or reduce impacts on lives and livelihoods and humanitarian needs' across HKH. This will directly empower communities to take necessary actions against the increasing threats of heavy rainfall, flash floods, and other water-related hazards in the region.”
Reminiscing the devastating impact of the 2024 monsoon floods on the communities from Kathmandu to the floodplains in Terai, Neera Shrestha Pradhan, Cryosphere and Water Lead at ICIMOD, highlights ICIMOD’s proactive moves towards strengthening anticipatory actions, “ICIMOD is contributing to the global EW4All initiative, aligning with its four pillars—ranging from investing in nature-based solutions to mitigating flood impacts, to ensuring localised and community-based responses. Recognising that early warning alone is not enough, ICIMOD is working to strengthen anticipatory early action and preparedness by fostering collaboration between communities and local governments. We are also working with partners to pilot gamification of training approaches — making learning more interactive, and impactful. These efforts aim to build lasting resilience in the face of increasing flood events and multi-hazard risks in our region.”
WMO’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 coincides with 2025 Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB62), a crucial mid-year meeting for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), from June 16 to June 26 in Bonn, Germany. This is a preparatory event for the upcoming COP30 in Belém, Brazil, with particular emphasis on adaptation and setting the agenda for COP30.
Read the full press release here: https://www.icimod.org/press-release/state-of-the-climate-in-asia-2024-icimod-response-to-wmo-flagship-report/
The Forest Fire Detection and Monitoring System (FFDMS) of the Nepal Government’s Ministry of Forest and Environment, detected around 1300 forest fire cases in the country just in a month-long span between 5 March and 5April. However, the number of daily forest fire outbreaks saw sudden spikes since 21March, albeit with some day-to-day fluctuations (Figure 1).
Simultaneously, a rapid assessment of the air quality data obtained from the Khumaltar air quality monitoring station in Lalitpur during this one-month period, revealed severe deterioration in air quality between March 21 and April 5 with levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) altering from 35–170 μgm-3 and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations ranging from 0.3–1.5 ppm; this is vis-à-vis the situation between 5-20 March (both PM2.5 and CO levels showing lower variability , ranging between 40 - 85 μgm-3 and 0.4 - 0.6 ppm, respectively) (Fig 2, left panel).
The mean PM2.5 concentration for 21 March - 5 April was measured at 97.2 µgm-³, almost 1.5 times higher than the measured value of 65.9 µgm-³ for 5 March - 20 March. The mean CO concentration, on the other hand, was measured at 0.8 ppm for 21 March - 5 April , almost 60 percent higher than the mean value (0.5 ppm) for the preceding fifteen days. (Fig 2, right panel). Such high levels of concentration of pollutants, PM2.5 in particular, increase the risk of cardiopulmonary diseases as well as all-cause mortality.
While the US Government’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) MODIS satellite images corroborated with the drastic change in the forest fire situation between 21 March and 5 April with fire incidents being more prevalent over time and space, it also revealed higher spatial concentration of the fire hotspots in the western/southwestern side of the Kathmandu valley (Figure 3)).
To be noted in this context, that nearly 26% outbreaks were detected in the Madesh province, 25% in Bagmati, 16% in Koshi, 14% in Lumbini and 18% cumulatively in the Gandaki, Karnali, and Sudurpashchim provinces, respectively.
The FFDMS data, on the other hand, shows only one localised case of forest fire in the valley (at Lalitpur) itself during this month-long phase, while several major fire hotspots – for instance, Chitawan (147 events), Makawanpur (110 events), Sindhuli (49 events) in the Bagmati province itself, or Parsa (174), Udayapur (77), Dang (54), in the adjacent Madhesh, Koshi, and Lumbini provinces, respectively - were detected at over 100 kilometres away from the valley.
With smoke plumes often rising to 4000-5000 metres, way beyond the typical planetary boundary layer in the region, forest fires are known for increasing the chances of long-range transport of emissions like carbon monoxide (CO), fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone precursors.
But how does the transport and dispersion of the pollutants occur? Empirical analysis of the process is relatively scare. Thus, to get an empirical perspective of it, especially during this year’s coinciding phase of severe air pollution in the Kathmandu valley and raging forest fire outbreaks across Nepal, we used the Khumaltar station as our receptor location for monitoring the source, transport and dispersion of pollutants in the local air1.
Forest fires from dried vegetations usually intensify during the pre-monsoon months in the southern Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) foothills (of India, Nepal and Bhutan) as well as at higher altitudes close to the cryosphere, due to dry weather conditions extending through the winter season. With longer spells of dry weather conditions becoming common in the region under the exacerbating effects of climate change, forest fires also have amplified in frequency, scale and intensity over the past ten years or so.
This years’ fierce pre-monsoon forest fires in Nepal, for instance, came on the heels of a drier-than-normal winter season - Nepal received only nine per cent of the average winter rainfall by 23 January , 2025, and the HKH region, in general, saw record-low winter snowpack this winter – and an advanced drought warning from the National Agricultural Drought Watch.
But it is the local meteorological condition, such as wind direction and velocity, atmospheric pressure and humidity etc. in the Kathmandu valley, that appears to play a crucial role in the dispersal of the pollutants.
Using pollution rose plots, we visualised CO and PM2.5 concentrations together with wind direction between 5-20 March and 21 March 21 – 5 April, respectively. Our analysis revealed that the frequency of winds from the southern direction increased during the fortnight of escalating fire outbreaks, coupled with a rise in the percentage of calm conditions from 10% to 15%, respectively. In tandem, both average CO and PM2.5 concentrations in the valley’s air increased by 64% (from 0.49 ppm between 5-20 March 5 to 0.82 ppm between 21 March and 5 April) and 47% (from 65.94 µgm-³ between 5-20 March to 97.2 µgm-³ between 21 March and 5 April), respectively (see Figs. 4 and 5).
Simultaneously, we used the hybrid single-particle Lagrangian integrated trajectory (HYSPLIT) model - a standard tool for simulating transport and dispersion of air pollutants – to track the source and movement of emissions to the valley during the severe pollution days, during the forest fire period.
A 48-hour backward trajectory analysis for identifying the sources of the emissions influencing daily air quality at the receptor location indicated that during the most polluted days pollutant sources showed higher likelihood of association with locations in the west/southwest of the valley where the forest fires were spatially concentrated.
The 48-hour backward trajectory for March 8, one of the days of relatively lower PM2.5 concentration in our month-long monitoring phase, traced incoming winds mainly from south/southeast sides of the valley. In contrast, the trajectory for 2 April, when high PM2.5 concentration was detected in the receptor location air, traced incoming winds from the forest fire prone western / southwest sides of the valley (Fig 6 top panels).
The findings from a 120-hour backward trajectory analysis for the frequency of airmass trajectories from long-distance emission sources are consistent with the surface wind patterns traced by the 48-hour back trajectories, thereby corroborating with long-range transport of emissions to the Kathmandu valley from distant sources, during severe forest fire episodes.
The 120-hour trajectory analysis, during the coinciding peak phases of pollution and forest fires, revealed higher frequency of incoming air masses from fire-affected regions outside of the valley, and hence higher likelihood of long-range transport of pollutants in the valley. In contrast, the pre-peak-fire period analysis showed higher frequency of surface winds that are more likely to bring in localised pollutants (Fig 6, bottom panels).
Bhutan’s agriculture sector – one that employs 40% of the population - is confronted with significant climate-related challenges visible in terms of change in rainfall patterns and fast drying up of spring water sources (UNDP, 2023)[1]. Owing to this and other structural challenges, the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been steadily declining, threatening the country’s self-sufficiency in staple crops.
In Bhutan’s 13th Five Year Pan (13 FYP), agriculture and livestock sector are prioritised as one of the growth drivers to enhance food and nutrition security, elevate farmers’ income, and increase the sector’s contribution to GDP by investing in improving irrigation and water supply through innovative solutions to improve farm productivity. However, only 20% of cultivable land is irrigated, highlighting a critical gap in agricultural productivity. Only a small portion is effectively utilised, primarily through outdated, open-channel, gravity-fed systems. These are highly vulnerable to climate variability, resulting in reduced crop yields, more fallow land, and increased reliance on food imports. The country’s mountainous terrain further complicates irrigation, often requiring water to be lifted from rivers at lower elevations to fields at higher altitudes – an energy-intensive and logistically complex task.
Given Bhutan’s abundant green energy resource, expanding irrigation and water supply infrastructure by harnessing renewable energy (RE)-powered irrigation solutions, supported by a solid governance structure and mechanism reflecting the local context, could play a transformative role in addressing these challenges. By using renewable energy solutions, for e.g. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to pump water uphill, Bhutan can ensure year-round, reliable irrigation and water access, reduce labour burdens, especially on women, and enhance food security, income, and climate resilience. Further, deployment of RE-powered lift systems can potentially address drinking water challenges with appropriate treatments. It’s a game-changing intersection of technology, equity, and sustainability.
Integrating renewable energy (RE)-powered lift irrigation systems into non-energy sectors such as agriculture requires strong collaboration and engagement across multiple agencies. These solutions are inherently complex and demand a comprehensive understanding of various interrelated factors – including supportive policies and regulations, the energy supply-demand landscape, hydrology and precipitation patterns, river systems, socio-economic and cultural contexts, climatic variability, performance of water supply systems, agricultural practices, electro-mechanical systems, market dynamics, market access, and environmental risks. In essence, it is a multidisciplinary endeavour that requires a coordinated and cross-sectoral approach.
Taking RE-powered irrigation solutions to a large scale – whether for agriculture or public water supply – further amplifies the complexity due to the involvement of multiple institutions with either diverse or overlapping mandates and governance demands.
To address this and guide the development of an integrated approach to mainstream the uptake of RE-powered lift irrigation in Bhutan, a project advisory committee (PAC) was established through the WERELIS–Bhutan project (Women Empowerment through Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Powered Decentralised Lift Irrigation Systems) supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Chaired by the director general of the Department of Energy, Royal Government of Bhutan, the seven-member committee includes senior-level representatives from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Water, the Department of Infrastructure Development, the Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and ICIMOD. This committee provides strategic guidance and oversight for implementing RE-powered lift irrigation systems, such as the WERELIS Project, and ensures the development of an enabling cross-sectoral approach.
"Every agency has its own mandate, policy, and planning framework. The biggest challenge is the fragmentation of responsibilities and accountability. More often than not, this leads to bottlenecks in implementation. The PAC is a critical mechanism that can bridge these institutional silos"
states Karma Penjor Dorji, Director General, Department of Energy, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, Bhutan
On 23 May 2025, the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) members visited the Thosne Khola rural solar drinking water project site at Konjyosom Rural Municipality, Lalitpur, Nepal implemented by Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), Government of Nepal.
During the visit, the Bhutanese delegation explored how solar power is being effectively utilised in addressing community water supply systems in Nepal’s mid-hills. The team examined technical specifications and financing mechanisms that could inform similar implementations back home. The site visit aimed to showcase the potential of renewable energy solutions in addressing water challenges in Bhutan, both for drinking and irrigation, as a part of climate change adaptation efforts.
“The first thing that struck me about the irrigation system here is the dynamic head[2]. It’s about 400 metres, which is a significant height. That’s huge. In Bhutan, we have one irrigation system with a dynamic head of about 150 metres, and even with that, we’re still struggling to pump water effectively. It becomes technically challenging and economically unfeasible.
But after seeing the lift irrigation system here, I was impressed by how simple and efficient it is. Despite the large dynamic head, they’re able to pump water and integrate the system for both irrigation and drinking water supply.
Another thing that stood out to me was the community’s contribution to the project. I learned that the total cost was about 21 million NPR, and around 2 million of that came from the community itself. That’s a great initiative – when the community invests their own resources, especially money, it gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility towards the system,” shares Tenzin Drugyel, National focal point for irrigation, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Bhutan.
“The moment I saw this project site, I was immediately reminded of two locations in the east and two in the west of Bhutan where similar opportunities exist. There are many water bodies down in the gullies that can be harnessed and lifted to settlements on the mountain tops where people reside,” remarked Khandu Tshering, Principal Engineer, Irrigation Division, Department of Infrastructure Development, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Bhutan. “This project demonstrates proven renewable energy solutions that are technically sound, financially feasible, and hold strong potential for replication across Bhutan – provided there is effective coordination, integration, and support in design and financing mechanisms.”
“This field visit has been very enriching, especially because Bhutan and Nepal share similar geomorphological conditions. We are both dealing with the complexities of mountain ecosystems – steep terrain, high mountains, and deep valleys,” shared Kinzang Namgay, Deputy Chief Program Officer at the Department of Water, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, Bhutan. “In such landscapes, solar-powered lift irrigation presents an important alternative for delivering water to rural communities living on mountain slopes. The project implemented here is highly replicable in Bhutan. If it works in Nepal, I believe it can work in Bhutan as well.” shares Kinzang Namgay, Deputy Chief Program Officer, Department of Water, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, Bhutan.
“There are three key takeaways from today’s visit,” reflects Karma Penjor Dorji, Director General, Department of Energy, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, Bhutan. “First is community engagement. When communities are involved right from the beginning of the project, we see better care and maintenance of the infrastructure, especially when ownership is transferred to them.
Second is capacity building. With proper training, communities can handle minor operations and maintenance issues on their own. This not only empowers them but also plays a critical role in the long-term sustainability of such projects.
Third is the importance of appropriate technology. We often design overly complex systems, and when the technology fails, the entire project can collapse. The technology should serve the community, not the other way around. Sustainability must be embedded as much in governance and community empowerment as it is in infrastructure, and in this scheme, I can clearly see these aspects being addressed.”
In Bhutan, the adoption of new technologies is guided by the country’s development philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which emphasises sustainable, inclusive, and holistic growth. In the energy sector, this translates into a strong commitment to green and clean energy solutions. As Bhutan seeks to revitalise its agriculture sector and improve access to water amidst growing climate challenges, renewable energy-powered lift irrigation presents a viable and context-appropriate solution.
The project implemented in Thosne Khola, Nepal, offers valuable lessons on how such systems can be effectively utilised for both irrigation and drinking water supply. With strong cross-sectoral collaboration and context-specific adaptation, Bhutan is well-positioned to replicate and scale these innovations. Doing so will not only enhance water security and strengthen rural livelihoods but also contribute significantly to long-term climate resilience .
[1] United Nations Development Programme. Assessment of Climate Risks on Water Resources for National Adaptation Plan. UNDP Bhutan, 8 November 2023. https://www.undp.org/bhutan/publications/assessment-climate-risks-water-resources-national-adaptation-plan
[2] height that the water needs to be lifted from the source (like a river or well) up to where it’s used (like a tank or field).
Meteorological agencies across the world have predicted a high probability of a wetter-and-hotter-than-normal summer monsoon for most of South Asia in 2025. That is likely to intensify the risks of water-related disasters in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) terrain spread across the eight South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan – surmise experts from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in their HKH Monsoon Outlook 2025.
The summer monsoon, between June and September, is the major source of precipitation in the HKH region with significant impacts on the hydrology of its river basins, which form the lifeline of nearly two billion people in the region. While a good monsoon is essential for replenishing these river systems, above-normal precipitations can expose the region to high risks of disastrous flash floods and landslides along the mountainous terrains and riverine floods in the plains. Historical records of floods in the region show that 72.5% of the total number of flood events recorded between 1980 and 2024 occurred during the summer monsoon season.
On the other hand, rising temperatures can accelerate cryosphere melting, contributing to short-term increases in river flow or ‘discharge’ and heightening the risk of glacial lake outburst floods, and in combination with wetter monsoon can enhance heat stress and cause waterborne disease outbreaks.
Pooling together the analyses of global and regional meteorological bodies like the 31st South Asian Climate Outlook Forum (SASCOF-31), APEC climate center (APCC), International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), along with those from various national agencies, the Outlook predicts temperature at above-normal level in almost all eight countries with an estimated mean summer temperature anomaly ranging from 0.5°C to 2°C above-normal. High probability of above-normal precipitations is predicted for over most of India, Nepal and Pakistan. While Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar are likely to receive near-normal levels of rainfall, normal to above-normal precipitations are also predicted for the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China.
Reflecting on these predictions, Arun Bhakta Shrestha, Senior Advisor at ICIMOD, reasserted the exacerbating vulnerability of the HKH region to increasing climate anomalies and cascading climate-induced disasters, “The tragic loss of lives and extensive damage during the September 2024 floods in Kathmandu Valley is a stark reminder of the rising climate threats in the region. It is a slice of the future staring us in the face. With projections across –the board indicating increasing monsoon precipitations and a shift toward more extreme events, there is an urgent need to revamp disaster preparedness and invest in improved forecasting and impact-based early warning systems across the region.”
Extreme weather events happen on the scale of a single day, while the nature, magnitude and extent of their adverse effects vary widely over physiography and across socioeconomic groups. Forecasting these events with accuracy calls for spatially and temporally localised signals of climatic anomalies. Simultaneously, such forecasts also need to account for exposure and/or vulnerability, translating the physical hazard characteristics into socioeconomic consequences.
However, given the dual dearth of short-term meteorological prediction capability and commensurate investments in the HKH, longer-term forecasts, such as the ones compiled in the HKH Monsoon Outlook, are critical for building insights into the prospective seasonal conditions at large. According to Sarthak Shrestha, Remote Sensing and Geo-Information Associate at ICIMOD, “Sharing this information timely is important from the point of disaster preparedness. Last year’s floods and landslides were an eye-opener for the strong need for early action and coordinated response across the region.”
In view of the rising frequency and aggravating severity of extreme weather events in the region, there is a growing consensus among regional meteorologists and disaster risk management experts on the need for impact-based forecasting of meteorological parameters and events. In tandem, ICIMOD has developed a suite of toolkits for forecasting precipitation, temperature, and river discharge up to two to ten days in advance, for Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan.
“These tools are already being used by the hydro-meteorological departments of the governments of Bangladesh and Nepalto generate their flood bulletins. The Red Cross and several municipalities across Nepal use these bulletins for anticipatory actions. The Benighat Rorang Municipality in the Bagmati Province of Nepal, for example, used these early warnings during the September 2024 floods to close schools in advance and keep almost 17,000 students safe. Our next step is to use these tools for impact-based forecasting,” says Manish Shrestha, Hydrologist at ICIMOD.
According to Saswata Sanyal, Manager, Disaster Risk Reduction Intervention, ICIMOD, “Our Community-Based Flood Early Warning Systems (CBFEWS) have proven to be life-saving tools, particularly in Nepal’s southern plains, where municipalities have adopted them to strengthen flood response. The demonstrated success of these systems has attracted interest from neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, and India, to test and replicate similar approaches in their watersheds toward end-to-end warning and last-mile connectivity. This underscores the vital role of proactive, community-centered approaches in building resilience to climate-induced disasters. At ICIMOD, we aim at converting warnings to actions – empowering communities before the disaster strikes.”
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues,
It is an honour to represent the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development — ICIMOD — at this High-Level Conference on Glacier Preservation. We extend our sincere thanks to the Government of Tajikistan for their warm hospitality and commend their leadership – alongside the many countries and organisations represented here - in bringing global attention to this urgent and escalating crisis.
ICIMOD serves eight Regional Member Countries that span the vast expanse that is the Hindu Kush Himalaya — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and is headquartered and hosted by the Government of Nepal in Kathmandu. Often called the Third Pole, this region holds the largest ice reserves outside the Arctic and Antarctic. It is home to over 240 million people and supports water, food, and energy security for more than 2 billion people downstream.
Yet the cryosphere here – as we have heard from so many delegates already - is degrading at alarming rates, due to warming, unsustainable development, and environmental degradation. Even under the most optimistic emissions scenarios, up to two-thirds of glacier volume could be lost by 2100. Peak water is projected around mid-century—just 25 years from now—after which flows will decline. The implications of these changes for regional – even global - stability are unthinkable.
Over 200 glacial lakes are now classified as potentially dangerous—particularly in Nepal, Bhutan, northern India, and Pakistan—posing serious risks to lives and infrastructure. These are no longer future threats. The science is clear. But the response is still far too limited.
At ICIMOD, we know no single country can address this alone. Glaciers cross borders!
That is why – at ICIMOD - we work regionally to generate evidence, support decisions, and enable action. But we need stronger collaboration and far greater investment.
We urge prioritisation in five areas:
1. On Science and Risk Assessment
2. On Inclusive Adaptation and Resilient Infrastructure
3. On Community Engagement and Indigenous Knowledge
4. On Policy Integration
5. On Regional and International Cooperation
The time for fragmented, reactive action is over. We must shift:
The HKH is critical to the stability and resilience of a large part of the world. Glacier preservation is not just an environmental concern—it is a core economic development issue.
ICIMOD stands ready to work with you all—to act decisively, at scale, and with the urgency this crisis demands.
In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being leveraged to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), digital tools hold immense potential for development initiatives. However, in rural areas with limited internet access, AI-based solutions might seem unachievable.
Gathering insights from communities is vital to understand their water needs. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Frank Water collaborated to conduct household surveys in two springshed sites in Nepal’s Kavrepalanchowk district (Opi and Bhelwati) using Frank Water’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Connect tool. Alongside these surveys, a pilot initiative by Colectiv, Frank Water, and ICIMOD tested the feasibility of collecting qualitative data through voice notes. This method aimed to assess the feasibility and efficiency gains from using AI to assist with transcription, translation, and analysis of qualitative data.
This case study highlights how a hybrid approach combining offline data collection with AI-supported analysis can enhance qualitative research in remote regions.
Community resource persons conducted 31 interviews with local householders, asking two key questions:
Challenges in water access: Can you tell me about any problems or difficulties you face in accessing clean drinking water? Would you like to make any changes to your drinking water source? (सफा पिउने पानी प्राप्त गर्न तपाईंले भोग्नु भएका कुनै समस्या वा कठिनाइहरूबारे भन्न सक्नुहुन्छ? के तपाईं आफ्नो पिउने पानीको स्रोतमा कुनै परिवर्तन गर्न चाहनुहुन्छ?)
Community resource persons recorded participants' responses as audio notes using mobile phones. The files were anonymised, uploaded to an encrypted online folder, and later transcribed, translated and analysed using Colectiv’s AI-based qualitative analysis tool.
Feasibility and challenges
What did the community say?
Community members had a strong preference for drinking spring water. Spring water tastes sweet and good, and people feel it is healthy and good.
म ओपी मूलको पानी पिउँछु। म जन्मेदेखि नै यही पानी पिइरहेको छु। यो पानी मलाई एकदमै स्वादिलो लाग्छ। यो नै सबैभन्दा राम्रो पानी हो किनभने यो अत्यन्तै मिठो छ । यो पानी एकपटक पिएपछि अरू कुनै पानी पिउन मन लाग्दैन। (I drink water from Opi spring, I've been drinking it since birth, it feels good, it's the best water because it's incredibly sweet. Once you drink it, you do not feel like drinking any other water)
Tap water and stored tank water were alternatives for a few people, but many avoided these sources. They use this water only for livestock or washing.
हाम्रो बोरिङ पनि छ, तर बोरिङको पानी पिउनको लागि त्यति योग्य छैन।लुगा धुन, भाडा मोल्न मात्र प्रयोग गर्ने गरिएको छ। (The water from our boring well is not as suitable, and it is only good for washing clothes and utensils.)
The main challenges they face are that the spring source can be far away and, especially in the rainy season, paths can become slippery and impassable. The spring can also get contaminated with overflowing water.
बर्खामा बाटो चिप्लो हुन्छ र हिउँदमाआफूलाईचाहिएकोजति पानी पाइदैन। (During the rainy season, the paths get slippery, and sometimes it's not easy to get as much water as wanted in winter season.)
बर्खामा मूलको पानी धमिलो हुन्छ, कहिलेकाहीँ किराफट्याङ्ग्रा पनि जम्मा हुन्छन्, र सफा पानी पाउने कुनै सम्भावना हुँदैन। (During the rainy season, it becomes muddy, sometimes insects accumulate, and there’s no way to get clean water)
People wanted improvements in infrastructures to help them have better drinking water access. Many people requested that their preferred spring water be brought closer to their homes to reduce the burden of collecting it. If the water could be piped directly to households, or at least to nearby tanks or reservoirs, it would help avoid the difficulties of collecting water along muddy paths.
ट्यांकी बनाइदिएर धारो जडान गरिदिए सजिलो हुन्थ्यो।बूढाबुढी बारम्बार पानी ल्याएर खान सक्दैनन्। (If a tank is built or a tap is provided it would be much easier. Elderly people can’t keep carrying water back and forth)
हरेक घरमा धारो जडान गरिदिए कस्तो सजिलो हुने थियो, मलाई त यस्तै लाग्छ! (If taps could be provided at every house, it would be convenient, that's what I feel)
Others requested improvements to existing sources, such as better pathways and protective measures to prevent contamination and overflow.
पानी नपस्ने गरी अलिकति ढलानसहित पर्खाल बनाउने र सम्भव भएमा वरिपरीको भुइँ पनि ढलान गरेर ढोकाहाल्नसके अझ राम्रो र सुरक्षित हुने थियो। (It would be better and safer to construct a wall with a slight slope so that water doesn't enter, and if possible, to install a door with the surrounding ground sloped accordingly.)
पँधेरोमा जाने बाटोअलि राम्रो बनाइदिनु पर्छ।पँधेरो वरिपरी खनेर आसपासको क्षेत्र अलिकति ठूलो बनाइदिनु पर्छ र राम्रोसँग संरक्षण गरिनुपर्छ। (It would help if the roads were improved. The area around the source needs to be a little bigger and better maintained)
As a partnership, we reflected on the inclusion of an AI tool for data collection and remote analysis. The process of solving development problems in remote regions across world has always meant involving ‘people from outside’ these communities. How much ever one may try – it’s difficult to bridge the gap between what is communicated by communities and what is understood by the ‘people from outside.’ The use of a tool like Colectiv reduces the communication gap drastically as the interpretation of what is spoken does not lie with individuals recording their responses, or in the reduction to survey items. Instead, this tool allowed all the subjective answers community members provided to be recorded verbatim without any interpretation and shows (qualitatively and quantitatively) what the community members want across various demographics within the community. We feel that needs assessment and understanding of community perceptions from such tools is closer to what the community means and not what is in the heads of interpreters, or those selected involved in the project.
This pilot demonstrated that AI-driven transcription and translation can support qualitative data collection in remote communities. In this case, human oversight was important for accuracy, but this may be less essential in other contexts. More broadly, the use of voice notes enabled researchers to capture community-driven narratives, providing valuable insights beyond quantitative survey responses.
By combining digital tools with human-centered approaches, organisations like ICIMOD, Frank Water and Colectiv can enhance development outcomes by ensuring that community perspectives can be used to improve programme planning and delivery. The value of a household survey can be greatly increased by adding tools that gather peoples’ voices and put them at the heart of decision-making.
The tourist season is at its peak in the hill stations and high mountains across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region as the scorching summer unfolds its arms. I remember last year, just as the snow was melting and summer was beginning, my colleagues and I were trekking to Laya – the highest settlement in Bhutan at an altitude of 3,800 metres above sea level (masl). Laya lies within the Jigme Dorji National Park, the country’s second largest park, situated in Gasa Dzongkhag, northwestern Bhutan. We drove from Thimphu via Gasa up to Tongchudrak where the road ends. We started the rest of the journey by foot.
I was very excited as we passed through the scenic beauty of natural and cultural manifestations. However, I was also quite surprised to see scattered plastic waste that people had left behind along the walking trails, even in such a remote and otherwise pristine place. When we asked our guide about it, he explained that the litter is mostly caused by local tourists and residents. Over time, their eating habits have changed, with growing consumption of packaged food and beverages, resulting in an increase in plastic waste in the area.
It was disheartening to see the mountain landscape marred by scattered multi-layered plastic wrappers, bottles made of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and heaps of glass bottles. Along the trails, there were small open pits which had been dug for waste disposal, but they were often left exposed, with trash blown away by the wind. In some of these open pits, I also saw trash being openly burned. Just before we entered the village, there was a huge pile of mixed degradable and non-degradable waste dumped beside the river. I said to myself that I must at least collect the waste along the walking trails on my way back, which I decided to do.
Before leaving Laya, I obtained a couple of large sacks from a local shop owner. With one of my friends, I picked up single-use and multi-layered plastic wrappers (mostly from chocolates, chips, chewing gum, biscuits and other snacks), PET bottles, beer cans, and energy drink glass bottles scattered along the trails. As we collected the waste and walked down from Laya, the sack grew bigger and heavier; it was difficult to carry, but our determination did not waver. We brought back about 14 kilograms of waste just from the walking trail alone on our journey from Laya to Gasa. Most of the waste collected was PET bottles (e.g. soft drinks like Coke, Fanta, Pepsi) followed by beer cans, and juice tetra packs.
The above scenario resembles the fate of many other tourist destinations, religious sites and trekking routes across the HKH region. In our rapid assessment of solid waste management in high-mountain protected areas in Nepal, we found that almost 60% of the waste is biodegradable, which is often either fed to animals, buried, or used to make compost. Meanwhile, non-degradable waste is either openly dumped near rivers or burned, contaminating water sources and polluting the air, which directly or indirectly affects human health and biodiversity.
In the Indian Himalayan Region, the ‘Himalayan Cleanup’ campaign is a local movement that began in 2018 with the aim of addressing the waste crisis. The Himalayan Cleanup’s annual waste audit found over 75% of plastic waste collected in 2024 was non-recyclable.
In the HKH mountains, almost 45% to 60% of waste is degradable, while non-degradable waste accounts for a minimal quantity, and its effective recycling is always a challenge. Onsite waste recycling is not economically viable unless waste is aggregated. The aggregation and transportation of waste, particularly plastics and glass bottles from the mountains is very expensive. If the plastics are not compacted, transporting them to a recycling facility becomes very costly too. Likewise, handling and transporting glass bottles from mountainous terrain is very difficult, and at many places, heaps of such bottles are simply piled up and left. Transporting this waste is even more expensive due to the challenging geographical terrain and lack of motorable roads. However, in some places such as in the Everest and Annapurna regions of Nepal, local communities and hoteliers have voluntarily banned glass beer bottles, opting instead for aluminium cans which can be crushed before aggregation and then recycled.
Informal waste workers and rag pickers play a crucial role in waste collection and segregation for recycling, but there is a huge challenge in aligning them with a formal network and ensuring their occupational health and safety. In many cases, these informal workers are from outside the province or state and the local governments do not recognise their role for incentivisation.
Non-degradable waste should be further segregated based on type and characteristics. For example, a plastic soft drink bottle uses three distinct types of plastic – the bottle itself is made from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), the bottle cap is made of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and the label wrapper is made from Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE). PET and HDPE are highly valuable plastics and easily recyclable, whereas LDPE is characterised by low-density molecules, which is cheap to produce but not easily recycled. Single-use plastic bags, all kinds of packaging wrappers, coating on containers and bottles, and garbage bags are all LDPE plastics, whereas multilayered plastics have thin sheets of various other materials laminated together (including aluminium, plastics, and paper) and are difficult to separate.
LDPE and multilayered plastics are becoming a serious problem with rapid industrialisation and increased consumption of processed food resulting in consumers dumping these plastics all over the pristine mountain landscapes. Many recyclers do not use these plastics as the recovery process is difficult and costly.
As described in the situation in Laya, the dietary habits and consumption patterns of mountain people across the Himalayas are shifting towards processed and packaged foods. This has heightened the waste problems which are further exacerbated by inadequate infrastructure and lack of mountain-specific, simple and affordable waste management technologies. For example, sophisticated, modern and artificial intelligence (AI)-based waste management technologies available in the market, such as smart bins, waste-sorting robots, automatic high voltage bailer machines for waste compaction or even incinerators may not be suitable in the mountains unless they are portable, energy efficient, easily operated and maintained, and are customised to the local context depending on the waste characterisation and quantity.
The solutions to waste management should go beyond ‘end-of-life management’ – when a resource is no longer usable but could be recycled or upcycled towards a circular economy, whereby we can keep reusing the resources, creating a value from what could otherwise be considered waste. Here we outline some waste management solutions for the mountains:
Similarly, the local community-driven zero waste campaign, ‘The Himalayan Cleanup’ across the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), is a clear example of a bottom-up approach to decentralised waste management and plastic recycling. In April 2025, several organisations across the IHR created the ‘Zero Waste Himalayan Alliance’ to tackle the reported 80% of single-use plastics from food and beverage packaging.
A World Bank report on solid waste management from 2018 projected that global waste generation is expected to rise 3.40 billion tonnes annually by 2050, a drastic increase from the current 2.01 billion tonnes. To curb this scenario and to bring systemic changes to effective waste management, our efforts should be threefold:
In addition, there should be:
There is still hope as we strive to maintain and protect cleaner and greener surroundings where our future generations can thrive healthily and coexist with nature. To mark this World Environment Day 2025, let us promise to #BeatPlasticPollution, let us nurture our mother Earth and let us serve the majestic Himalayas to sustain its crucial ecosystem services flows.
Acknowledgement
Sabitri Dhakal
Gillian Summers
Barsha Rani Gurung
Samuel Thomas
It is incredibly sad to learn that Professor U Shankar is no longer with us. He has been a great inspiration to many of us involved in teaching and research in economics in India, particularly in environmental economics, econometrics, and public policy. He provided invaluable support throughout his career. Professor Shankar’s academic achievements are truly impressive. He studied Economics at the Madras University and Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu, one of the states in India, in the 1950s. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in econometrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the United States of America (USA), in 1967.
Professor Shankar taught at the University of Wisconsin, USA, during the 1970s and became a full professor there in 1976. He later returned to India, where he played a key role in establishing the Department of Econometrics at the University of Madras in 1978. He became the President of the Indian Econometric Society in 1993. Prof. Sankar was one of the founders of the Madras School of Economics and became its director. He served as the National Program Coordinator for the World Bank-funded Environmental Capacity Building Program in India during the late 1990s. He was one of the main resource persons for this programme, which trained many young economists and administrators across India in Environmental Economics at that time. The programme brought a revolutionary change in the teaching and research methods in Environmental Economics in India, benefiting a generation of economists who specialised in this field. He also played a highly active role in a similar and significant programme in the broader context of South Asian countries – the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). In recognition of his valuable contributions to teaching and research in Environmental Economics, he was made a Fellow of SANDEE in 2009. Additionally, he was a National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research during the period 2003-2004.
In his illustrious career spanning several decades, Prof. Shankar published numerous articles in both national and international peer-reviewed journals. During the 1970s, he co-authored several papers in leading international journals, including The Review of Economic Studies (1969), International Economic Review (1970), The Review of Economics and Statistics (1973), Journal of Economic Theory (1977), among others. He also authored several books such as ‘Controlling Pollution: Incentives and Regulations,’ (with S Mehta and S Mundle, Sage Publications, Delhi, 1997), ‘Environmental Economics: Reader in Economics’ (Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2000), ‘Trade and Environment: A Study of India’s Leather Exports’ (Oxford University Press, 2006), and ‘The Economics of India’s Space Programme: An Exploratory Analysis’ (Oxford University Press, 2007).
In addition to his extensive scholarly contributions, Prof. Shankar was actively associated with various professional bodies, academic boards, and policy committees in India. His teaching at several universities and other academic institutions has benefited numerous students, many of whom now hold key positions in academia.
Imagine a world where every plant, animal, and insect are catalogued, and this is accessible to everyone through biodiversity data platforms. How would that affect our understanding of nature? Knowledge, after all, is our greatest weapon in the fight against biodiversity loss.
Over the past few months, as we explored biodiversity data from across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), we realised that open access biodiversity data platforms such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and its regional node, the Hindu Kush Himalayan Biodiversity Information Facility (HKHBIF), are much more than repositories of information on fauna, flora, and fungi. They are windows into the stunning diversity of life that allow us to explore the living organisms around us. These tools are open repositories for evidence-based decision-making in conservation actions which can inform and inspire action in ways that can change the world. One example of this is when these data are used as a supplement for IUCN Red List Assessments in preparing range maps, which is one of the criteria for categorising the conservation status of species.
This year, as the world celebrates the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) 2025, we want to approach open access biodiversity data platforms from the perspective of their role in achieving our global aspirations for biodiversity, climate, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Since the UN General Assembly’s proclamation in December 2000, 22nd May has been the day to celebrate the diversity of life on this planet and our collective actions to protect it. The day marks the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on 22nd May, 1992. Crucially, beyond a celebration, this day is a call to action - reminding us of what remains to be done.
How do open access biodiversity data platforms align with this year’s IDB theme: “Harmony with Nature and Sustainable Development”? This theme resonates deeply with the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These two sets of goals are interconnected; we cannot achieve the SDGs without reversing biodiversity loss. Simultaneously, the way we frame our actions to achieve the SDGs can drive the change towards living in harmony with nature. This vision of interconnectedness reiterates the urgent need for integrated and transformative actions to secure a sustainable, fair, equitable, and resilient future for all, where the goals of the 2030 Agenda and the KMGBF are pursued in tandem.
Of the 23 action-oriented global targets of the KMGBF, the GBIF and HKHBIF directly align with and contribute to Target 21: Ensure That Knowledge Is Available and Accessible To Guide Biodiversity Action. This target is crucial. It recognises that we need the most reliable data, information, and knowledge in an open and usable format – to support decisions, policies, and awareness, and effective biodiversity governance and inclusive management.
The GBIF is a global network that provides open access biodiversity data from sources as diverse as herbarium and museum collections, camera traps, field observations, monitoring sites and citizen science platforms like eBird and iNaturalist. They use common standards like Darwin Core, which organise millions of species records on its platform, enabling their systematic accreditation and use. The data is shared openly under Creative Commons licenses, allowing researchers, scientists, and others to freely use the data for research and education. As of April 2025, GBIF hosts over 3 billion species occurrence records contributed by over 1,800 institutions globally. This data has been used in academia, policy and decision making, species extinction risk assessments, and habitat suitability mapping by local, national, and large-scale intergovernmental and conventional based bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
HKHBIF, hosted by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), brings a regional lens to this effort. It focuses on collecting, sharing, and spreading biodiversity data from the HKH region, that hosts parts or all of four global biodiversity hotspots. With over 200,000 species records already published through GBIF, HKHBIF is our regional space to mobilise biodiversity data across ICIMOD’s eight Regional Member Countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. From GBIF records, we found 3,874 species of birds, 1,339 mammals, 837 reptiles, 438 amphibians, 26,351 insects, 41,001 plants, and 14, 286 fungi within the HKH region.
Biodiversity data does not sit in isolation. It is crucial for achieving the UN SDGs, especially Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), Goal 10 (Reduced Inequality), Goal 13 (Climate Action), Goal 14 (Life Below Water), and Goal 15 (Life on Land). A study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences GBIF node shows how biodiversity data supports SDGs, such as Goal 10 in recognising rights, valuing biodiversity and related knowledge, and building an environment for equitable benefit sharing, and Goal 8 by linking biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods as a requirement for decent work and economic growth. Making biodiversity information available in the public domain, such as the publication of pictorial guidebooks on the region’s flora can aid in education and conservation efforts – contributing to Goals 4 and 15, respectively.
As we mark the International Day for Biological Diversity for the 25th time, let us recognise that platforms like GBIF and HKHBIF are more than data repositories. They are catalysts driving nature-positive actions to achieve both conservation and sustainable development outcomes. In the HKH, where biodiversity loss continues and remains less accounted for and measured – as highlighted in a Mongabay India commentary that biodiversity data from the region is poorly represented in GBIF and largely published by institutions outside the region — these platforms remind us of the power of collaboration, to bridge data gaps and amplify local voices in the global biodiversity discourse.
ICIMOD recently collaborated with GBIF and other biodiversity-mandated institutions in HKH countries such as the Zoological Survey of India, Forest Action Nepal, National Biodiversity Centre in Bhutan and National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences to enhance the capacity of institutions on biodiversity data mobilisation from the HKH.
Our call to action emphasises greater investment for expanding open-access digital platforms of biodiversity data, strengthening institutional collaborations in building HKH biodiversity data repositories to highlight the status of mountain biodiversity, raising awareness on how such data platforms address the issue of intellectual property rights, and engaging and strengthening the capacity of citizen scientists to use such platforms.
By making biodiversity data openly accessible and easy to use, GBIF and HKHBIF serve as a bridge between the KMGBF and the SDGs. GBIF offers the global infrastructure needed to track KMGBF progress and monitor SDG indicators. HKHBIF contextualises this data for the HKH region, thereby supporting and motivating the HKH countries to translate global biodiversity goals into regional actions for biodiversity conversation and resilience, and in effect, find a space for the mountain voices in global biodiversity fora.
Nagaland in India’s northeast is rich in biocultural diversity, where the people have a notable aspect of connection to nature and wildlife, reflected by their cultural practices and beliefs. The Nagas’ culture and tradition, folklore and folksongs, taboos and myths express intimate relationships with the complexities of the ecological system. One example is the myth of the tattoo marks on the catfish, which are attributed to ichthyomorphosis, i.e. a human transformed into a fish.
As such, Nagaland is an exemplary case where the Constitution of India, under Article 371(A), provides special provisions for administration, and community ownership over land and natural resources. As one of India’s seven ‘sister states’, Nagaland is home to sixteen major tribes and exhibits legal pluralism within the state, with varying governance systems among different tribes.
At a global scale, the aim known as ‘30x30’ constitutes effectively conserving and managing at least 30% of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services – by 2030. This is Target 3 of the ‘Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’, adopted by 195 countries in 2022 at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada.
Achieving Target 3 is considered by international scientists as the minimum action needed if humanity is to succeed in halting and reversing biodiversity decline by 2030. Experts also point to the significance of connectivity, effectiveness, and respecting and recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) when carrying out conservation. In this way, the 30x30 target is imperative in Nagaland.
As forest dwellers, the socio-cultural, economic, and subsistence activities of the Nagas was traditionally dependent on the use of forest resources. However, over time, population pressure, deforestation and modernisation began to erode traditional forest management systems, leading to unchecked hunting and logging, and hence threatening biodiversity. In response to these challenges, communities started voluntarily designating portions of their lands as areas to conserve biodiversity. This long-standing cultural practice was later formalised and designated as Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) following the customary laws of the Naga people. The tribal councils, guided by customary laws, regulate hunting, fishing, and the use of forest resources.
CCAs in Nagaland have been in existence since the 1800s, when the tropical evergreen forest of Yingnyushang was declared as a CCA by Yongphang village in Longleng District. But the growth of CCAs as we know them today began during the 1980s. In 1998, the village of Khonoma in Nagaland initiated a community-led conservation project to protect the Blyth’s Tragopan (Tragopan blythii), a pheasant species that is categorised as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. The village banned hunting of the endangered Blyth’s Tragopan and other wildlife, and imposed fines for violations. Today, there are an estimated 432 CCAs, covering 59,661.23 hectares, voluntarily managed by the tribal peoples in Nagaland (NCCAF, 2025).
The CCA model offers a win-win situation for both people and nature. CCAs are led by the IPLCs through local customary laws to promote a traditional lifestyle, socio-cultural identity, spirituality, and livelihood (Kothari, 2006).
CCAs play a crucial role in preserving the rich biodiversity of Nagaland. Traditional practices like ‘jhum’ or shifting cultivation – which entails clearing a plot of land for agriculture and then leaving it to regenerate before shifting to a different plot – ensure the survival of successional species, thus increasing overall biodiversity metrics. It also prevents the forest stand from reaching the climax stage, maintaining species evenness and diversity. Another example is the alder-based farming practiced in Khonoma, which promotes sustainable land use by ameliorating soil fertility and providing livelihood resources simultaneously.
However, there are significant challenges to the sustainability of CCAs, as there is no sustainable financing mechanism for managing them. The ban on traditional hunting limiting resource use has also created stress and ambiguity among the people of Nagaland. Furthermore, the transmutation of CCAs into Community Reserves (CRs), a formal protected area, imposes similar restrictions on land use change and inherits certain rules that are applied in other protected areas (PAs) as per the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act 2002, 36A – 36D (Government of India, 2002). In simpler terms, once declared CRs, the government controls the use of resources and activity inside the community reserves.
To address these issues, CCAs in Nagaland require a different designation, such as ‘Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures’ (OECMs) so that they can continue to be managed as CCAs with support from the national and international community and gain clear recognition of the efforts of the community in conserving biological diversity at regional and global scales.
One promising solution to gather global attention and funding for the management of CCAs is the incorporation of CCAs as OECMs(IUCN-WCPA Task Force on OECMs, 2019; Hoffmann, 2022). OECM is defined as "a geographically defined area other than a Protected Area, which is governed and managed in ways that achieve positive and sustained long-term outcomes for the in-situ conservation of biodiversity, with associated ecosystem functions and services and where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and other locally relevant values” (CBD, 2018). The state of Nagaland could potentially recognise all 52.07% of the state’s forests as OECMs (Forest Survey of India, 2023).
Even in other areas that are not considered forest, Nagaland holds tremendous potential for OECMs across agro-ecological landscapes such as jhum areas, alder-based farming systems, and the zabo system that support a great diversity of farmland-dependent species and related ecosystems. Zabo means ‘impounding of water’; this system integrates water harvesting and agriculture, where the rainfed water is collected and used in multilayers for domestic use, animal rearing and growing vegetables.
OECMs are often perceived to be synonymous with protected areas, but there are key differences. The primary objective of PAs is to achieve conservation outcomes (not excluding other related benefits), while the primary objectives of OECMs are not limited to conservation benefits, but include cultural preservation or other traditional purposes, and recognise diverse governance mechanisms, which align with the management of CCAs (Sharma et al., 2023). OECMs duly recognise and support IPLCs and their contribution to conserving local biodiversity (Jonas et al., 2021). The integration and adoption of OECMs into policy, planning, governance, and management of areas important for biodiversity can help achieve ambitious conservation goals like 30ᵡ30, and ‘Nature needs half’(Dudley et al., 2018) – an international coalition that advocates for the protection of at least half of the Earth’s land and oceans to ensure the health of ecosystems and biodiversity.
The table below summarises how CCAs in Nagaland align with OECM criteria (Table 1).
| OECM Criteria | How CCA is aligning with OECM Criteria |
|---|---|
| Area is not currently recognised as a protected area | CCAs, other than recognised as protected area by government of India, can be recognise as OECM. |
| Area is governed and managed | CCAs are generally outlined with traditional boundaries like natural structures by village clans and tribal people of Nagaland and are managed and governed by the existing customary laws. |
| Achieves sustained and effective contribution to in-situ conservation of biodiversity | CCAs are managed effectively in response to addressing existing or anticipated threats to deliver positive and sustained outcomes in-situ through voluntary effort. |
| Associated ecosystem functions and services and cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and other locally relevant values | Traditional agricultural practices (jhum, alder-based), water and land management practices (paddy-cum-fish, Zabo), and religious sites (sacred groves) in the CCAs are inherent traditional practices embedded in the culture and livelihood of the people in Nagaland. |
The government of India has developed criteria and guidelines on identifying an OECM in the country (MoEFCC, NBA & UNDP 2022). The state-specific legislation, Nagaland Village and Area Councils Act, 1978, empowers village councils to manage natural resources, providing a governance framework essential for OECM recognition.
Despite subsidiary provisions supporting the transition of CCAs to OECMs, challenges remain, such as overlapping mandates between customary and statutory law, and lack of specific legal frameworks for recognising CCAs as OECMs. Complicating this further, the state regards all the forests under community management as unclassified state forest, not only in Nagaland but also in neighbouring states like Arunachal Pradesh. Thus, if we are exploring CCAs as OECM, we are limited by the very first OECM criteria.
A second concern among communities is the loss of control with the change to OECM. They cite the case of transformation of CCA to community reserves (formal protected areas) which excludes them from claiming the OECM title. A third concern is the history of PA formation, exclusion of communities, and restrictions on their rights to access natural resources.
To understand more, we must dig deep into political ecology on how the benefit-sharing promises by the government to the real stewards are overshadowed and rights to resources are restricted.
These ambiguities in management and status of the CCAs as potential OECMs need to be resolved with new central and state-level policies that articulate rights and responsibilities clearly and don’t impinge on the rights and special status that communities enjoy in Nagaland.
This recognition requires multi-stakeholder dialogue between the Naga people, and state and national governments. This recognition also needs to be advocated through media campaigns, outlooks, and communication products to build awareness among policymakers and IPLCs about the benefits of implementing the OECMs and to design effective legal mechanisms for safeguarding the rights of communities in the transformation of CCAs to OECMs.
CCAs in Nagaland represent a powerful model of Indigenous-led conservation, deeply rooted in the cultural and spiritual practices of the local tribes. However, to ensure their sustainability and effectiveness, it is crucial to address the funding and legal ambiguities and challenges they face. By aligning CCAs with OECM criteria, we not only preserve biodiversity but also uphold the cultural and socio-economic values integral to the people of Nagaland and ensure recognition and reward for their conservation stewardship beyond the national scale. Community efforts in conserving and managing CCAs in Nagaland deserve special recognition nationally and globally.
Disclaimer: All views, statements, and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the authors. They are drawn from various articles and reports, and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICIMOD, including any statements regarding the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or the endorsement of any product.
Ramesh Kathariya is a Research Associate at ICIMOD
Supongnukshi Ao is the Chief Conservator of Forests & Member Secretary of the Nagaland State Biodiversity Board (NSBB)
Sunita Chaudhary is Biodiversity Lead at ICIMOD
CBD. (2018). Decision adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Convention on Biological Diversity. https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-14/cop-14-dec-08-en.pdf
Dudley, N., Jonas, H., Nelson, F., Parrish, J., Pyhälä, A., Stolton, S., Watson, J. E. M. (2018). The essential role of other effective area-based conservation measures in achieving big bold conservation targets. Global Ecology and Conservation, 15, e00424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00424
Government of India. (2002). The Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002. Retrieved from https://indiankanoon.org/doc/897686/
Hoffmann, S. (2022). Challenges and opportunities of area-based conservation in reaching biodiversity and sustainability goals. Biodiversity and Conservation, 31, 325–352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02340-2
Forest Survey of India. (2023). India State of Forest Report 2023, Volume 1. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India. Retrieved from https://fsi.nic.in/uploads/isfr2023/isfr_book_eng-vol-1_2023.pdf
Imlinungla, S. (2023). Understanding the community conserved areas: Rediscovering the role of indigenous peoples. International Journal for Research Trends and Innovation, 8(5), 2233-2237. Retrieved from https://ijrti.org/papers/IJRTI2305222.pdf
IUCN-WCPA Task Force on OECMs. (2019). Recognising and reporting other effective area-based conservation measures. IUCN. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2019.PATRS.3.en
Jonas, H., Ahmadia, G., Bingham, H., Briggs, J., Butchart, S., Cariño, J., Chassot, O., Chaudhary, S., Darling, E., DeGemmis, A., Dudley, N., Fa, J., Fitzsimons, J., Garnett, S., Geldmann, J., Golden Kroner, R., Gurney, G., Harrington, A., Himes‐Cornell, A., & Weizsäcker, C. (2021). Equitable and effective area‐based conservation: Towards the conserved areas paradigm. Parks, 27(1), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2021.PARKS‐27‐1HJ.en
Kothari, A. (2006). Community conserved areas: Towards ecological and livelihood security. PARKS, 16(1), 3–13. Retrieved from https://iucn.org/sites/default/files/import/downloads/parks_16_1_forweb.pdf
MoEFCC, NBA, & UNDP. (2022). Criteria and Guidelines for Identifying Other Effective Area Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in India. Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, National Biodiversity Authority, United Nation Development Programme. Retrieved from https://www.undp.org/india/publications/criteria-and-guidelines-identifying-oecms-india
NCCAF. (2025). Nagaland CCA Forum. Community Conserved Areas South Asia. Retrieved on 10 February 2025 from https://nccaf.communityconservedareas.org/
Sharma, M., Pasha, M. K. S., Nightingale, M., & MacKinnon, K. (2023). Status of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) in Asia. Bangkok, Thailand: IUCN Asia Regional Office. Retrieved from https://iucn.org/sites/default/files/2023-11/status-of-oecms-in-asia-report-high-quality_compressed.pdf
Guest authors: AKM Saiful Islam, Md Hasanur Rahman, Iffat Jahan Shammee and Zarin Tasnim.
From fishermen risking their lives at sea, to farmers fearing the loss of their land and homes, to entire villages grappling with the long-term economic and psychological toll of recurring disasters – cyclones continue to reshape the daily realities of communities in Bangladesh. Their stories are a stark reminder that climate-driven disasters threaten not just homes, but livelihoods, and community resilience. Cyclones often do not occur in isolation, but are part of a compound and cascading hazards. How can researchers work together to build the resilience of communities in coastal Bangladesh?
A team from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), AKM Saiful Islam Professor at Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), BUET, Iffat Jahan Shammee, Md Hasanur Rahman, Saleh Sakib Ahmed, and Zarin Tasnim, and ICIMOD representatives Manish Shrestha and Bipin Dulal, collaborated on a study focused on compound and cascading hazards of cyclones in Bangladesh. The team identified heavy precipitation, erosion, salinity and floods as an associated hazard to cyclone in the coastal regions of the country. This team was formed during the hackathon organized by ICIMOD in September 2024.
Due to its unique geography, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to devastating cyclones. Although only 5% of all cyclones in the world occur near the coast of Bangladesh, this 5% account for 80% of all cyclone-related deaths (Debsarma 2009). Cyclones in Bangladesh generally occur in the pre-monsoon (Mar–May) and post-monsoon (Oct–Nov) periods (Rahman et al., 2024). Since 2019, Bangladesh has been hit by 16 cyclones originating from Bay of Bengal and moving inland, causing devastating impacts. Bangladesh was hit by cyclones Dana and Remal in 2024, Midhili, Hamoon, and Mocha in 2023, Sitrang, Jawad, Gulab and Yaas in 2022, and Amphan, Bulbul, and Fani in 2020 (Bangladesh Cyclones). There needs to be a deeper understanding of how cyclones can trigger other hazards – leading to cascading, compound, and/or amplifying impacts – especially in the context of climate change, which communities may not be fully equipped to handle.
Bangladesh’s southeastern coastal region is one of the most cyclone-prone areas in the world. From 1582 to 2020, nearly half of the country’s 88 recorded cyclones struck this region, wreaking havoc on lives and livelihoods (Siddik et al., 2022). We carried out field visits and surveys across cyclone-prone coastal areas, engaging directly with local communities and Union Parishad1 representatives from Anowara, Pekua and Banshkhali Upazilas2 , parts of Bangladesh’s southeastern coastal belt. These interactions provided crucial insights into the daily activities and challenges faced by the residents. The livelihoods in these coastal regions are predominantly dependent on fishing, agriculture, and salt mining, all of which are highly vulnerable to the impacts of cyclones and coastal hazards.
Abdur Sabur Chowdhury, ex-chair of Banshkhali Upazila, mentions that communities in the area experience at least one cyclone annually, significantly disrupting their daily lives, damaging homes, and jeopardizing their livelihoods. The effects are not just physical but also economic and psychological, leaving long-term impacts on communities.
Bashir Ali, a fisherman aged 35 living outside the embankment, recalls his experience: "During Cyclone Fani (2019), my house was there (Banshkhali). After Fani, the river eroded, and my house is gone. This was my birthplace, my home." (sic)
Similar situations have been observed in Anowara Upazila. Gouro Das, a fisherman aged 70, shares his struggle: "Every year, cyclones stop us from going to sea – this happens around 5–6 times a year. Sometimes, during a cyclone, we have no choice but to continue fishing because of Dadon (loan). Our livelihood, our lives – everything is under threat."
Tarek, a farmer aged 42 from Raychata in Banshkhali Upazila, constantly worries about losing the home he has lived in for 15 years. He expresses his fears: "During cyclones, I always worry that my house will be gone, and I’ll be homeless once again – just like after the 1991 cyclone."
Ranu Akter, (30) of Raychata, sheds light on the critical challenges faced by women during cyclones, emphasising the severe shortage of freshwater, and the absence of adequate sanitary facilities. “Food supplies are scarce, and accessing the sanitary facility becomes a daily struggle for us.”
These voices reflect the struggles of most households in the region, highlighting the harsh realities faced by coastal communities in Bangladesh.
The government has implemented several measures to mitigate the impact of cyclones on vulnerable communities, including the construction of cyclone shelters, early warning systems, evacuation routes, and coastal dykes (structures, typically made from earth, stone, or concrete, designed to prevent water from flooding). One such initiative is the Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) established in 1972 by the then Bangladesh Red Cross Society (now Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, BDRCS) with the assistance of the then League of Red Cross Societies (now International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC) and the Bangladesh government.
Many cyclone shelters also function as multi-purpose buildings. In Khankhanabad of Banshkhali Upazila, there are 15 government primary schools that also serve as cyclone shelters. To help manage the crisis, the Union Parishads have prioritised evacuating persons with disabilities and ensuring the availability of dry food supplies at the shelters. In addition, several non-government organisations (NGOs) actively evacuate people from vulnerable areas and provide essential support to affected communities.
In Rajakhali union, Pekua Upazila, southeastern Bangladesh a unique coastal water management system supports both salt farming (marine ecosystem) and agriculture (fresh-water ecosystem) separated by a single lane road. This system is unique because it integrates salt farming and agriculture within proximity, separated by a single road, allowing both marine and freshwater ecosystems to thrive sustainably despite coastal flooding risks. This system showcases an effective balance between economic activities and agricultural sustainability, demonstrating a successful adaptation practice that supports both livelihoods despite coastal flooding challenges.
The mitigation efforts can only go so far when the infrastructure itself is failing. The construction of dykes was abandoned due to budget constraints in Rajakhali. Additionally, in some areas of Gahira, Anowara Upazila, southeastern Bangladesh cyclones have eroded sections of the dykes. The local community in Gahira has raised concerns that the weakened sections of the dykes could be breached during the next cyclone, potentially resulting in extensive flooding.
During the key informant interviews (KII), Mohammad Syed Nur, a Union Parishad member of Raypur Union, Anowara Upazila, stated that the number of cyclone shelters is insufficient, and emphasised the need for construction or repair of access roads leading to these shelters.
Selim Ullah, a member of the Rajakhali Union under Pekua Upazila express their similar concerns, “due to the highly vulnerable conditions of the dyke, I and my family will immediately abandon our home after we will receive a warning”.
Senwara Begum, panel chairman of Rajakhali Union Parishad, highlighted the challenges of poor communication systems and inadequate infrastructure – such as electricity and mobile networks – during cyclones. Drawing from her experience, she stated, “During Cyclone Mocha in 2023, the warning issued for Rajakhali was Signal 5 [danger signal], but in reality, the severity escalated to Signal 8 [greater danger signal]."
Geographic location plays a pivotal role in impacting government focus on disaster preparedness. The regions in remote areas get less attention from the government. "Khankhanabad is a remote area, and that means it gets less attention from the government when it comes to disaster preparedness," said Mohammad Jamal Mia, union administrative officer. "When a cyclone strikes, poor road conditions make it difficult for people to reach safety zones, with the most vulnerable suffering the most.”
However, on the other side of the spectrum, a well-known popular destination also faces a similar issue. The severe erosion along the marine drive road between Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf, a popular beach destination, holds significant threats for tourism. Due to global warming, the increased frequency and intensity of cyclones pose an additional threat along the marine drive road that runs parallel to the 120km-long beach.
"We need urgent action – not after a disaster strikes, but long before it ever happens,” the union administrative officer urged. Without immediate investment in resilient infrastructure, lives will remain at risk with every passing cyclone season.
Insights from the Bangladesh case study, combined with findings from other hackathon projects, will provide valuable input for testing the MHRA framework. ICIMOD will organise the HKH DRR Knowledge Hub in 2025 to share knowledge and key lessons from the case studies.
Beyond knowledge sharing, the next step is direct engagement with the National Disaster Management Authorities of the HKH countries. ICIMOD aims to advocate integrating the MHRA framework into national policies, working closely with these agencies ensuring a proactive and co-ordinated approach to multi-hazard risk reduction. This includes the development of standardised methodologies for multi-hazard interaction modelling, and developing multi-hazard early warning systems.
However, the success of this initiative hinges on continued investment in research, capacity-building, and on-the-ground implementation. Strengthening regional co-operation, enhancing data-sharing mechanisms, and fostering adaptive strategies will be essential in mitigating the escalating risks posed by climate-induced disasters. Additionally, building local-level resilience through community-driven approaches must remain a core priority, ensuring that the most vulnerable populations have access to life-saving resources, and infrastructure.
With an immediate decisive action, we can help at-risk communities withstand, and recover from cascading disasters. The road ahead is challenging, but through collective efforts, innovative solutions, and policy-driven action, we can help build a safer and more resilient future for the HKH region and beyond.
1 A Union Parishad is the smallest rural administrative and local government unit in Bangladesh. The member of Union Parishad consists of a chair and members who are directly elected.
2 Upazila is an administrative region functioning as a sub-district. It is positioned between districts and Union Parishad. An Upazila may consist of 5-17 Union Parishad.
With climate change accelerating, disasters are no longer isolated events across the globe. In the Hindu Kush Himalaya, increasingly complex and interconnected natural hazards are becoming more frequent. Events such as floods, landslides, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and cyclones – whether occurring independently or interacting – are causing massive loss and damage (Maharjan, et al., 2021). The impact of such events in the countries of the HKH is elevated due to its dense populations, fragile geography and rapid unplanned development (Tsering et al., 2021).
Addressing these challenges requires a shift from assessing single hazards to a comprehensive multi-hazard risk assessment (MHRA) approach. Multi-hazard risk assessment is a process of evaluating the impact of multiple natural hazards in a specific geographic area and time. By examining how different hazards interact and amplify one another, policymakers and communities can better prepare for future disasters. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is at the forefront of these efforts, working to develop innovative disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies that integrate MHRA into planning and policy frameworks across the region. By bringing together experts and policymakers, ICIMOD plays a critical role in ensuring that risk assessments translate into real-world policies that protect lives and livelihoods.
As a regional intergovernmental hub, ICIMOD facilitates knowledge sharing and learning among its eight Regional Member Countries (RMCs) – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan, aiming to influence policy and practices to address critical environmental and livelihood challenges.
A key component of ICIMOD’s 2030 strategy, and especially within our Action Area on cryosphere and water and our Intervention on DRR – is a strong emphasis on MHRA, which aims to understand how various hazards interact. This approach helps communities and policymakers in the HKH develop effective mitigation strategies in response to the growing frequency of such disasters.
One example from the HKH includes the cascading floods in Melamchi, Nepal in 2021, which were triggered by heavy rainfall, snow melt, a GLOF and ‘landslide damming’ – a permanent or ephemeral interruption of a river caused by landslide deposition. Other examples include the devastating floods in Sikkim, India in 2021, resulting from intense rainfall combined a GLOF; and the compound impacts of a dry winter followed by widespread forest fires in Nepal in 2024. Such extreme events underscore the critical need for integrated MHRAs in the HKH.
ICIMOD’s mid-term action plan for 2023–2026 emphasises the need for RMCs to integrate innovative DRR approaches into their policies and investments. To achieve this, ICIMOD has been advocating for the adoption of comprehensive MHRAs that consider cascading, compound, and amplifying impacts.
ICIMOD developed a MHRA framework in 2022–23. With the increasing impact of multi-hazard risks in the HKH, the team revised the draft framework to integrate how hazards interact with each other in the region through computer modelling. These modelling helps to analyse past disaster as well as future scenarios. The proposed framework also aims to assist stakeholders in implementing MHRAs, in order to enhance resilience and inform effective risk mitigation strategies.
As a part of its efforts to provide the RMCs with a regional framework for MHRA that addresses interaction between the hazards, ICIMOD’s DRR intervention team organised a five day ‘hackathon’ in September 2024 at Lalitpur, ICIMOD headquarter. A hackathon is an event, typically lasting a few days, where individuals or teams collaborate intensively to create ideas or innovative solutions, within a limited time frame.
The MHRA hackathon brought together experts, early career professionals, and students with a background in modelling to form interdisciplinary groups to MHRA case studies. These case studies are aimed to leverage computer models, remote sensing data, field research, and secondary data sources to test the HKH-MHRA framework. Six different teams were formed during the MHRA hackathon, each team focusing on specific hazard interactions such as cyclone, drought, forest fire, Glacier Lake Outburst Flood, and landslide.
As a part of the MHRA hackathon, participants and experts from these teams visited the Melamchi area in eastern Nepal, which had been hit by severe flooding in June 2021, to observe the cascading impacts of the disaster and to model different scenarios of hazard interaction in the different RMCs. Melamchi flood-affected area to. A report published by ICIMOD confirmed that heavy rainfall, snow melt, erosion of glacial deposit, glacial lake outburst, landslide and river damming, riverbank erosion and debris deposition triggered severe flooding in Melamchi river and caused damages to the nearby areas.
The primary objective of the project is to develop a validated and replicable MHRA framework. Once established, this framework will be disseminated across the RMC counties. The project will then move toward actively engaging with the National Disaster Management Authorities of the HKH countries. ICIMOD intends to promote the integration of the MHRA framework into national policies by collaborating closely with these agencies to foster a proactive and coordinated approach to multi-hazard risk reduction. This effort will pave a path on creating methods for modelling multi-hazard interactions and advancing multi-hazard early warning systems.
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) family is deeply saddened by the loss of a distinguished food microbiologist, mentor, and leading expert on the ethnic food cultures of the Himalaya, Professor Jyoti Prakash Tamang.
Tamang served as ICIMOD Mountain Chair from 2019–2021. During his tenure, he worked closely with Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) members in Bhutan, China, and Myanmar to conduct research on ethnic foods and promote regional collaboration for research on mountain food systems and cultures.
Prof. Tamang was born in Darjeeling, India, in 1961. He completed his PhD in microbiology from the University of North Bengal, India, in 1992; post-doctorate research in molecular microbiology from the National Food Research Institute, Japan, through the United Nations University – Kirin Fellowship in 1995; and another post-doctorate research from the Institute of Toxicology and Environmental Hygiene, Germany, in 2002, through the Volkswagen Foundation Fellowship.
As a pioneering food microbiologist, his work centred on the interpretation of ethno-microbiology to metataxonomics and metagenomics associated with fermented foods and beverages prepared and consumed by different ethnic peoples of the Himalayan region of Bhutan, India, and Nepal. His research covered a wide range of subjects – from microbiome diversity and food safety to nutrition and probiotics. He published several books and over 155 research papers.
Prof. Tamang continued to provide mentorship and guidance to HUC early/mid-career researchers from the region in collaborative research and education on food and nutrition security and ethnic culinary heritage. He was an active member of the HUC Thematic Working Group on Mountain Food Systems.
Prof. Tamang taught microbiology and biological sciences for 33 years and supervised several doctoral and post-doctoral students. At Sikkim University, India, he served as the officiating Vice-Chancellor during 2017–18 and from 2011 till his departure, as Professor of Microbiology and Dean of the School of Life Sciences. He received several prestigious awards, such as the United Nations Association of University Women Award in 1996; National Bio-Science Award of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, in 2005; and Gourmand World Cookbook Award in 2010. He served as a Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India; the Indian Academy of Microbiological Sciences; and the Biotech Research Society of India.
Chi Huyen (Shachi) Truong, HUC Secretariat, said: "Prof Tamang was a passionate lifetime advocate for genuine dialogue between modern science and Indigenous traditional ways of knowing. Approachable and young-at-heart, he inspired generations of scholars and students to thrive for academic excellence while keeping the core respect for local knowledge. As one of three ICIMOD Mountain Chairs, Prof. Tamang laid the foundation for regional collaboration in scientific research and education on mountain-focused, HKH-specific issues amongst the HUC community. His personal warmth and scholarly dedication will be missed by his fellow ICIMOD Mountain Chairs, HUC fellows and affiliates who were fortunate to receive guidance from him, and the HUC community at large."Bandana Shakya, Landscape Lead at ICIMOD said she was “deeply saddened" by Prof. Tamang’s death. She described him as “a brilliant mind and passionate advocate for local food systems and nutritional security. Working with him on our book on ethnic cuisine and sustainable food system dialogue was an inspiring journey for me. His deep respect for traditional knowledge around local food and dedicated research on their nutritional value will certainly leave a lasting impact, especially to enrich our food heritage from the Himalayas. May his good work continue to inspire and guide us.”
The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, with its towering peaks and dynamic landscapes, presents both opportunities and challenges for hydropower development. Among these, scientific cooperation is emerging as a pivotal force in ensuring that these projects provide clean energy and prioritise safety and socio-environmental resilience. International scientific collaboration, exemplified by initiatives like the NSFC-ICIMOD partnership, along with the growing role of women in geological sciences, is proving to be a strong element in driving innovations in hydropower safety and sustainability.
The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region has significant hydropower potential that is crucial for addressing energy needs and driving economic growth. However, hydropower faces challenges, particularly from climate change. These issues include glacier retreats, erratic precipitation, Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), and landslides, all of which threaten water and energy infrastructure. As climate impacts intensify, integrating climate risk-proofing for infrastructure investments and climate adaptation options becomes increasingly critical.
The region’s vulnerability has been starkly highlighted by recent GLOFs in India (Sikkim 2023) and Nepal (Thame 2024). These destructive events have caused severe damage to hydropower plants, disrupted communities, and underscored the urgent need for climate-adaptive solutions. Safeguarding this vital energy source requires a holistic understanding of the cryosphere, hydrology, and geology-related risks and the integration of adaptive measures that protect the infrastructure and ensure sustainable energy production. Strengthening hydropower resilience is essential for securing livelihoods, promoting economic growth, and supporting sustainable development in the HKH region; therefore, science-based support is vital to effectively address the complex climate risks and the knowledge gap associated with hydropower infrastructure.
The collaboration between the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has shown how a science-backed partnership can help shape the future of hydropower in the region. The joint work has helped crucial geological hazard assessments at the Manang Marsyangdi Hydropower Project. The project emphasises a thorough multi-hazard assessment by incorporating scientific knowledge into engineering design, concentrating on geological risks such as landslides and debris flows for safeguarding hydropower infrastructure and communities in the vicinity.
The joint team, led by Professor Chen Ningsheng of Yangtze University, China, who serves as the Chinese Co-Investigator of the NSFC-ICIMOD-funded project ‘Understanding landslide-induced multi-Hazards for building resilient communities along trans-Himalayan socio-economic corridors,’ carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the Marsyangdi Hydropower Project site. The team, including graduate students and an expert from ICIMOD, assessed geological hazards around residential and plant facilities, gathered soil samples from various sites for luminescence dating to establish sediment deposition dates and performed comprehensive particle experiments. Based on the survey and sample analysis, the team presented an innovative and integrated plan to mitigate the geological hazard risks for the Manang Marsyangdi Hydropower Project site.
Manang Marsyangdi Hydropower Project: The 135 MW Manang Marsyangdi Hydropower Project in Manang, along with the 139.2 MW Lower Manang Marsyangdi and the 327 MW Upper Marsyangdi-2, was developed in a cascade model, forming one of Nepal’s largest and most pioneering hydropower ventures, boasting a total combined capacity of 601 MW.
Their approach is divided into three key aspects to prepare for any disaster event, which include combining the blocking and draining method, blocking out large debris and draining smaller ones. This means building check dams in the debris flow channels to stop large boulders, while also creating drainage channels to redirect the flow away from construction areas. This strategy was well-received among the stakeholders of the hydropower project, presented during the discussion session as an effective means for mitigating geological hazard risks.
This comprehensive approach enhances the safety and resilience of the hydropower project site, serving as a model for similar projects across the HKH region, exemplifying the journey from science to action. These efforts have strengthened safety protocols, highlighting the significance of merging academic research with practical engineering solutions, and initiated discussions for enhanced international cooperation between ICIMOD and Yangtze University.
Prof. Chen and his team have also supported the Bhote Koshi (45 MW) and Upper Arun (1,063.36 MW) hydropower projects near the Nepal-China border, contributing to resilient hydropower development in Nepal. Our collaboration reflects an effort built on the ICIMOD-initiated ‘Guideline for climate resilient hydropower development in Nepal,’ which seeks to foster collaboration, share knowledge, and develop Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM)-strategies to enhance climate resilience in hydropower projects across Nepal and the HKH region.
This brings us to the question of inclusive science. Our collaboration with NSFC is focused on doing better science to action and seeking to recruit more women and members of Indigenous communities in geological science. The field investigation team at the Manang Marsyangdi Hydropower Project was joined by a cohort of what we call ‘Women on Rock’.
Traditionally, the field of geological sciences has been dominated by men, but recent developments are challenging this status quo. The rise of women researchers in the field, both in a literal and metaphorical sense, is inspiring a new wave of aspiring geological engineers, particularly women, to explore careers in geosciences.
Promoting the Women on Rock initiative in this collaborative project provides avenues for comprehension of better understanding the Earth’s processes via practical, science-to-action activities in both China and Nepal. These emerging leaders are poised to bring fresh perspectives and drive innovation in a field long constrained by gender imbalance.
The ‘Women on Rock’ initiative echoes the spirit of another ICIMOD initiative launched last year – HKH Women on Ice – which empowers young female researchers from the HKH region with the knowledge, skills, and inspiration needed to excel in cryosphere science. Together, these efforts are paving the way for a more inclusive and innovative future in geoscience.
The support provided by the ICIMOD-NSFC collaboration to the Manang Marsyangdi Hydropower Project exhibits how scientific cooperation can serve as a cornerstone for developing resilient infrastructure in geologically complex regions. As the HKH region continues to harness its immense hydropower potential, such collaborative models, rooted in rigorous scientific inquiry and enriched by diverse perspectives, will be crucial, particularly for transboundary river basins like the Yarlung Zangbo–Brahmaputra River basin. Fostering international partnerships and amplifying the voices of underrepresented groups, including women and youth in science, the hydropower sector can address the energy demands of today while simultaneously laying the foundation for sustainable, secure, and inclusive development for future generations. This aligns seamlessly with ICIMOD’s vision for a greener, more inclusive, and climate-resilient Hindu Kush Himalaya. Let the spirit of scientific innovation and cooperation continue to ‘rock’ the region.
News link “我院师生赴尼泊尔科技指导马楠马相迪水电站地质灾害防治工作 ” by Yangtze University: https://dqkx.yangtzeu.edu.cn/info/1059/13156.htm
A dedicated cross-chapter paper on ‘mountains’ has been incorporated into the report outline for the upcoming 7th IPCC Assessment Report, reflecting the urgency of addressing mountain-specific climate impacts.
Mountain ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to climate change. Rising temperatures and challenges brought by climate change, such as a changing cryosphere, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss, have severe socio-economic consequences that impact the lives and livelihoods of mountain communities, rendering them more vulnerable. In response to this, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing science related to climate change, has drawn attention to the need to respond to the impacts of climate change in mountain regions since 2023, in its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
The IPCC’s Assessment Reports, published every five to seven years, provide a comprehensive scientific assessment of climate change, its impacts, and potential future risks. By providing an outlook on current and future climate scenarios, the assessments inform, and influence governments’ climate change mitigation and adaptation plans, as well as their investments in climate actions.
As the upcoming Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) is being prepared, there has been a push to more systematically include the ‘mountain agenda’ in the report, especially from a number of mountain nations. ‘Mountain agenda’ is a catch-all phrase to highlight and address the vulnerabilities of mountain people and to respond to the impacts of climate change on mountain regions.
At the 62nd IPCC meeting (IPCC 62), which took place from 24 February to 1 March 2025 in Hangzhou, China, delegates from 195 member countries discussed and agreed on the outline and key topics for the upcoming assessment report, AR7. The Panel’s agreement included the work of defining the scientific content of AR7, organised around the IPCC’s three Working Groups which assess (I) the physical science basis of climate change, (II) impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, and (III) mitigation of climate change.
Representatives from six of ICIMOD’s eight Regional Member Countries (RMCs) – Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan – participated in the IPCC 62 discussions. A number of RMCs led an intervention to request a dedicated chapter on ‘Mountains’ in the AR7. As a result, Working Group II endorsed a cross-chapter paper on ‘high altitude and mountains’, which is to be considered by the Working Group II authors. Furthermore, Working Group I will explicitly mention ‘mountain regions’ in its chapters on assessing regional climate and extremes and on earth system processes and changes. Cross-chapter papers synthesise information and insights from multiple chapters or Working Groups within the report to provide a more holistic and in-depth analysis of a specific topic.
As defined by UNEP, ‘loss and damage’ in the context of climate change refers to the negative impacts, both economic and non-economic, that arise from the effects of climate change – particularly those that go beyond what people can adapt to, like the loss of life, property, and cultural heritage. The impact of climate change on ICIMOD’s RMCs includes increased loss and damage risks. These countries face rising threats from climate-induced disasters, including floods, landslides, droughts, and the melting of glaciers and snow, leading to loss of lives, ecosystem change, damage or destruction of infrastructure, and vanishing cultural heritage. Working Groups I and II of AR7 have included policy-relevant assessments for loss and damage in their outline, and Working Group II has a dedicated chapter on the subject. The topic is also assessed in multiple other chapters. The proposed AR7 chapter on loss and damage received unanimous support from ICIMOD’s RMCs.
RMCs that are also least developed countries (LDCs) joined hands in requesting the IPCC to assess information particularly relevant to LDCs. This led to Working Group II approving the inclusion of a cross-chapter paper on LDCs as a part of its regional assessment chapters.
Despite agreeing on the outline of all three Working Group reports, the Parties (member countries of the IPCC) did not reach a consensus on when the reports would be delivered, nor on the outline of the methodology report of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory. Thus, these decisions have been postponed to the upcoming 63rd IPCC meeting to be held in Lima, Peru towards the end of 2025.
During plenary sessions, working group discussions, and informal group discussions at IPCC 62, some ICIMOD RMCs expressed the view that the AR7 report should be delivered in time for the Global Stock Take (GST) in 2028, while others feel that a more thorough review process is needed. This is consistent with past IPCC assessments, which typically take between five to seven years.
The Parties agreed that the Working Groups could begin to solicit author nominations and plan the first lead authors’ meeting as approved in the 2025 budget.
ICIMOD has had observer status to the IPCC since 2012. Since then, our experts have been contributing to IPCC reports and special reports as coordinating lead authors, lead authors, contributing authors, and chapter scientists. ICIMOD co-hosted the IPCC lead author meeting for AR6 (Working Group II) in 2019 and has engaged in various IPCC outreach events.
ICIMOD will continue to work with the RMC governments and experts from the region to contribute to all the assessment areas raising and highlighting the mountain agenda. We will continuously provide support to authors on content that is important for mountain regions and their communities to raise their voices and build an evidence base for policy formulation. Furthermore, ICIMOD will work with its government partners to increase their capacity to meaningfully engage with and contribute to IPCC and other global assessment processes. To facilitate greater engagement from the region with the AR7 process, ICIMOD hosted a regional webinar featuring IPCC Bureau members in early April 2025, to build understanding of the expert nomination process and other engagement pathways for AR7.
Mountain air was crisp and piercing, despite the midday sun shining bright above us. As I checked out the vast valley before me, I felt the sharpness of each breath I drew, a constant reminder of the extreme environment we were there to study. I was in Shodug, Bhutan, in the headwaters of Thim Chhu, a river that flows through Thimphu valley, Bhutan’s capital city. I coordinated a team of researchers from Bhutan’s National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM) on a mission to install ground temperature sensors in areas of possible permafrost occurrence in the Bhutan Himalayas.
This was Bhutan’s first initiative to monitor permafrost, an important milestone for both the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and NCHM. It also happened to be our first day of installing sensors, naturally, enthusiasm was running high. But as we moved forward, it quickly became clear that the rugged terrain was more challenging than expected. Navigating unstable, unfamiliar ground without proper trails was painfully slow, and at the rate we were progressing, it would take us days longer than planned to deploy all the sensors.
That is when we met Kinzang Wangchuk, a local yak herder who owns over eighty yaks and also someone who was everything we were not in this environment: confident, swift, and deeply in tune with the land. When we asked if he could guide us, he agreed with a smile that seemed almost effortless. Over the following days, I was amazed by how well he knew the terrain. It was as if every rock and ridge held a story he had heard a hundred times. We simply pointed to where we needed to go, and Kinzang would lead the way, moving through the treacherous terrain with the ease of someone walking on flat ground.
We identified a potential site with a high probability of permafrost occurrence and asked Kinzang to take us there. Without hesitation, he nodded and said, ‘Ah, that’s where we collect cordyceps.’ I did not think much back then, but the next site we identified as having a high probability of permafrost also happened to be an area Kinzang frequented. As I pointed out the general direction, Kinzang’s eyes lit up, ‘I know that place. That is another spot where we gather cordyceps.’ Second time! Could this be just a coincidence? A likely connection between the two highland occurrences of cordyceps collection and high-probability permafrost areas piqued my curiosity.
Cordyceps sinensis (Ophiocordyceps), a caterpillar fungus locally known as Yartsa Gunbu (summer grass winter worm), is generally found across the Himalayan range. Given its high medicinal value, Yartsa Gunbu is often referred to as ‘Himalayan gold’ and is highly sought after in the market.
Permafrost is the soil, rock, or sediment, usually held together by ice, that stays frozen for at least two consecutive years. It can be found in high-latitude and high-elevation regions, mostly 4,500 metres above sea level in the high mountains in the case of the Hindu Kush Himalya (HKH) region. The health of permafrost is critical for mountain ecosystems, but it is also the least studied component of the cryosphere, especially in the HKH region.
Could it be that Cordyceps sinensis favours colder, permafrost-rich environments? The question persistently swirled in my mind. To test my theory, I pointed to another area with medium to high permafrost probability. ‘I bet we will find cordyceps there too,’ I said, half-joking. Kinzang confirmed with a grin, ‘Yes, we do.’
That only deepened my curiosity, I felt like I had landed on a gold mine of information. I prodded further, taking the reverse approach. I picked a spot far away from likely to find permafrost. Pointing at it, I asked sarcastically, ‘How about there? Lots of cordyceps, I am sure.’ Kinzang shook his head with certainty. ‘No cordyceps there.’ This pattern set my mind buzzing with questions.
Walking forward, jokingly, I said, ‘If you want to collect a lot of cordyceps next season, let me know. I can pinpoint exactly where to look!’ Of course, this was a hyperbole; Kinzang knew this landscape better than anyone. But he dropped his final surprise, ‘Cordyceps are not abundant every year. It is only abundant every three to four years.’ Kinzang further pointed me towards something intriguing – the cyclical abundance of cordyceps.
This was too much of a coincidence to leave at that, it deserves more research. From the literatures I reviewed, I found that while cordyceps thrive in cold environments, there is no specific mention of permafrost influencing their distribution. Surprisingly, the literature also revealed that ghost moth larvae, which cordyceps parasitise, take three to five years to mature in the soil, their development and maturity are closely tied to soil temperature.
It is still early to establish the temperature of the ground as the likely connection to the habitat, development, and maturity of Cordyceps. however, this theory needs to be assessed in other permafrost regions in the HKH as well. Now, I am curious to explore this phenomenon further based on:
Permafrost in the region remains largely under-researched, although through what we know, its changes can have the most implications for the mountain communities. My conversation with Kinzang Wangchuk and potentially the newfound understanding and linkages between cordyceps and permafrost raised a bigger question in my mind – could thawing mountain permafrost disrupt this delicate relationship between cordyceps and their habitat? For mountain communities like Kinzang’s, whose livelihoods depend on harvesting cordyceps, the impacts could be profound. This likely connection between permafrost and cordyceps calls for more research to better understand the phenomenon and to prepare for potential changes in a warming world.
Additionally, through my coincidental encounter with Kinzang Wangchuk, I have developed a profound respect for the role of Indigenous knowledge in the scientific process. It has reinforced how local knowledge and empirical science can complement each other, providing deeper insights into complex environmental systems. Through the integration of the two valid sources of knowledge, we can uncover new research questions and enhance our understanding of intricate ecological connections. This will not only enrich scientific questions but also pave the way for more informed and context-specific decision-making, one that is data-driven and deeply rooted in lived experiences.
What started as a challenging expedition became an enlightening journey, blending traditional knowledge and scientific curiosity to uncover nature’s hidden links.
As the season of droughts and forest fires looms over Nepal, here’s a look at what could be done to avert the worst.
Droughts are a complex hazard due to their multifaceted causes, encompassing meteorological shifts, human activities, and socio-economic pressures.[1] This complexity is further amplified by the cascading hazards they trigger, most notably, in terms of the increased frequency and intensity of
forest fires.[1] The prolonged dry conditions of droughts desiccate vegetation, thereby providing ample fuel that render landscapes highly vulnerable to forest fires while also creating a setting for dangerous feedback loops.[2]
In Nepal, forest fires are getting more and more intense with each passing year. While the country saw a restoration of its forests due to national-level community forest management practices during the 1980 and ‘90s, the gains are now being challenged by the escalating impacts of climate change – reduced rainfall and drier winters (1, 2) These have led to forest fires becoming a recurring hazard. The figures speak for themselves – while in 2021, the country recorded over 6,000 forest fires, last year, 2024, saw more than 5,000 fires burn through the countryside.
Data from the Forest Fire Detection and Monitoring System (FFDMS) in Nepal (Graph 1) shows that the frequency of forest fires has more than doubled in the last decade, while 2025 is projected to be one of the worst years yet. Every two to three years, a high incidence of forest fire has been recorded. This increase is not just in terms of number, but also in terms of the scale and intensity of the fires.
This year, the National Agricultural Drought Watch of Nepal has already issued an advanced warning of drought. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for the months of January and February (Map 2) showed that the majority of the districts were experiencing moderate to severe drought conditions. Almost every district in the western region of Nepal has been experiencing moderate to severe drought conditions. The forest fire risk map (below) also shows the districts that are vulnerable to forest fire. The map, which integrates climate, land-cover, and geophysical data, shows that some regions, particularly in the mid-hills and the Terai, are expected to face significantly higher risk of forest fires this year. Districts like Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Kailali, and Kanchanpur of Terai, and Surkhet, Salyan, Dadeldhura, Pyuthan, Doti, and Arghakhanchi of the hills have been identified as high-risk districts for forest fire. These areas have already been experiencing more frequent drought conditions and have become highly prone to higher temperatures and lower rainfall. The SPI has also shown moderate to severe drought conditions for these areas. The SPI map and the forest fire risk maps of Nepal reveal a strong correlation between drought severity and forest fire risk.
Drought acts as a silent yet potent trigger that causes devastating forest fires. It is not merely a prolonged dry spell but rather the build-up of a combination of several factors that lead to ideal conditions for the igniting and spreading of forest fires. The key factors include:
In the context of Nepal, these factors are particularly influenced by monsoonal pattern changes, deforestation, land-use changes, forest management activities (human and forest interactions manipulating forest fuel), and the effects of climate change.
As Graph 1 indicates so clearly and alarmingly, between the years 2012 and 2024, the frequency of forest fires escalated dramatically across Nepal, while more than 300 such incidents have already been recorded in the first two months of 2025, whereas the peak season for fires, which is usually the pre-monsoon months of March to May, is yet to come.
From 2012 to 2025, forest fires have consistently surged during the dry months, especially in the pre-monsoon season (March–May), which coincides with the peak of Nepal’s dry periods. The increased frequency of drought events, coupled with the severe drying of vegetation, creates a dangerous convergence of conditions conducive to fires. It is crucial to note that the districts that are the worst hit by forest fires are also the most affected by drought, which is an illustration of a vicious cycle that may only worsen with time.
Data from Graph 2 shows that districts like Banke, Bardiya, Chitwan, Dang, Surkhet, Kailali, and Kanchanpur experience higher incidents of forest fire (more than 1,500 forest fires from 2012 to 2024). These districts, located in the Terai, also suffer high temperatures and prolonged droughts, making them hotspots for forest fire outbreaks.
Meanwhile, hilly districts like Achham, Dadeldhura, Doti, Makwanpur, Pyuthan, Salyan, Sindhuli, and Udayapur, with their vast forested areas, also show a high frequency of forest fires, which further emphasises the link between drought severity and forest fire occurrence. The drought conditions in these areas increase the likelihood of fast-spreading fires that are difficult to control, and threaten both rural settlements and biodiversity. Each year, an average of 3,000 forest fire incidents were recorded in Nepal from 2012 to 2024, of which Banke, Bardiya, Surkhet, Chitwan, Dang, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Parsa, Salyan, Doti, and Dadeldhura recorded over 1,000 forest fire incidents each in 12 years.
As drought conditions intensify, Nepal is heading towards a future where forest fires could become a regular, uncontrollable phenomenon. This would contribute to climate change, worsen air quality, and displace local communities. Already this year, the air quality index (AQI) of Nepal’s major cities has touched the unhealthy mark, and the upcoming forest fire threat during the dry months is sure to further degrade the air we breathe.
In 2024, the major cities of Nepal breathed significantly poor air, with forest fires being a primary cause for the abysmal air quality. Similarly, in 2023, Nepal and its neighbouring countries saw air quality deteriorate due to forest fires and residential biomass burning. Analysis from ICIMOD’s air pollution dashboard showed elevated levels of carbon monoxide, which, when inhaled, can lead to changes in lung function and make breathing difficult.
Furthermore, forest fires are a precursor to other hazards. They can cause soil erosion and landslides, particularly in mountainous terrains. During such fires, all the vegetation, including the root structure which stabilises the soil, burns out, leading to increased surface run-off and weakened slopes. So, in fire-affected slopes, even moderate rainfall can trigger a landslide and also move debris and sediments into rivers and block waterways, thereby threatening life downstream.
It was based on the pressing need for a scientific forest fire detection and monitoring mechanism that ICIMOD and Nepal government’s Department of Forests and Soil Conservation (DoFSC) jointly developed the web-based FFDMS. This tool serves as a key resource for forest fire risk assessment, monitoring, and management, thereby enabling decision-makers to enhance preparedness and responses during forest fires. In addition, it not only provides real-time information on the occurrence of forest fires but also sends SMSs and email alerts to officials of all forest divisions, subdivisions, and to the members of community forest user’s groups nationwide.
Badri Raj Dhungana, Director General of DoFSC,emphasised the significance of this system in enhancing Nepal’s fire-response capabilities, stating, “Such technological innovations can serve as a critical tool in enabling the authorities to act swiftly, thereby minimising damage and improving disaster preparedness.” He also stressed on the importance of fire prevention regulations, saying, “Strict fire prevention regulations must be implemented and those individuals responsible for starting fires should be penalised. There should also be incentive mechanisms to encourage the reporting of fire incidents by local authorities.”
As the months of forest fire incidents are approaching, it is time for immediate action. In addition to this warning and monitoring system, the government, local authorities, and communities must work together to strengthen the firefighting capacity, implement strict forest fire prevention measures, and invest in reforestation and fire-resistant vegetation. Constructing firebreaks in high-risk areas and implementing sustainable forest management practices can help contain fire spread. Public awareness campaigns are also critical to educate citizens about the dangers of forest fire and the role drought plays in exacerbating forest fire risks. A community-based fire management (CBFiM) approach can empower local residents to take an active role in early fire detection, prevention, and suppression efforts. Furthermore, integrating fire risk assessments into national disaster preparedness strategies will enable policymakers to proactively address fire-prone zones and implement preventive measures before peak dry seasons.
Additionally, strengthening Nepal’s firefighting capacity through the provision of modern equipment, advanced training, and remote sensing technologies is essential to combat forest fire effectively. The combination of earth observation systems, early drought monitoring, and robust forest fire management plans in land use planning can help mitigate this growing threat and create long-term resilience.
Guest Author: Dawa Zangpo
With over 60 percent forest cover and more than half of the country designated as Protected Areas (PAs), Bhutan has a strong incentive to conduct Natural Capital Accounting (NCA). Bhutan’s strong policy mandate encourages NCA which has important strategic linkages to national and international conservation targets. Conducting NCA, especially for PAs, requires a participatory approach as well as good data. With strong enablers at play, Bhutan can pioneer NCA for PAs to showcase its rich natural capital.
NCA has been gaining recognition in the global conservation agenda especially to account for climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem services degradation, with the System of Environment Economic Accounting (SEEA) serving as a global framework.
The Bhutan government adopted SEEA as the official environmental economic accounting framework in 2012. This allows Bhutan to measure its natural resources, outlined in their national implementation plan for SEEA in Bhutan (2024-2029), which plans to account nine different thematic areas by prioritising accounts based on different timeframes.
Under the SEEA framework, SEEA-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) integrates measures of ecosystems and their flow of services with measures of economic and other human activities. Protected Areas (PAs) in Bhutan encompass a variety of ecosystems and using SEEA-EA helps determine the contribution of those ecosystems to their respective PAs whilst also tracking their condition and health over time. Further, accounts such as the ecosystem services and monetary assets account utilise the principles of the System of National Accounts (SNA) to link the contribution of ecosystem services with the economic beneficiaries in the accounting period.
ICIMOD with DoFPS, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Bhutan, aims to publish NCA guidelines for PAs along with an experimental account for Jigme Dorji National Park (JDNP). Under the leadership of DoFPS, various activities were conducted in 2024 to sensitise and build the capacity of multiple stakeholders to ensure that the process is inclusive and representative of diverse perspectives (Figure 2).
The first set of activities included consultations with the community (20 March 2024 in Barshong village), and with local leaders (22-23 March 2024 in Paro). These consultations helped identify ecosystem assets, ecosystem services, challenges and opportunities in JDNP. During the national-level consultation (25-26 March 2023 in Haa), existing datasets of different agencies were mapped (Figure 3).
The importance of data was emphasised by Lobzang Dorji, then Director of Department of Forest and Park Services, who said, “It is our duty to value the sustainable usage of goods and services that are consumed on a daily basis.” Geley Norbu, Director of National Land Commission, encouraged inter-departmental collaboration for data sharing to take NCA forward.
The consultations were followed up with a technical exercise involving ICIMOD’s experts and an interdisciplinary Geographic Information System/Remote Sensing (GIS/RS) team from different departments in Bhutan to co-create a comprehensive set of accounts for JDNP that would feed into the guidelines (2-5 July 2024). This interdisciplinary team was transformed into a Technical Working Group (TWG) and it was decided that the directors of the respective departments would be part of the Steering Committee (SC).
Creating NCA guidelines is a reiterative process that requires revision and validation of data and any temporal changes, the results from the technical exercise were shared with the Technical Working Group (18-20 March 2024) and Steering Committee (24 March 2024) for further feedback and presented during the national consultation (25 March 2024) in Bhutan (Figure 4).
The consultations were important to build the capacity of the TWG to assess natural capital data of JDNP, receive inputs from PA officials on the NCA guidelines and create a first draft of the guidelines which includes an experimental account of JDNP. This complements other steps which focus on refinement. The final steps are identifying how NCA can help with PA management in terms of improving current conservation as well as identifying new investments.
Increasing awareness among stakeholders is necessary to successfully implement NCA guidelines in any given region. The concerned authorities and stakeholders need to be aware of the benefits and incentives of implementing NCA in their region. Stakeholders should include PA managers, authorities of the concerned ministries and departments, local communities (including youths, girls, women, and people from marginalised communities and different ethnic groups), community-based organisations, private sector, non-government organisations, international non-government organisations, and inter-government organisations actively working in the area.
The successful implementation of NCA guidelines and the development of NCA accounts relies on the experience, skills, and capacity of the technical persons and institutions involved. The technical exercise brought together a working group that consisted of experts from different departments along with ICIMOD experts (Figure 5). They engaged in collecting, curating, validating, and analysing the data required for NCA. This engagement along with other future capacity-building programmes will help to strengthen their skills and develop a better understanding of NCA.
Data is a key component for assessing ecosystem stocks and flows while accuracy of the data is crucial for rightly informing the decision-making and planning process of the development of accounts and the formation of a new strategy. Learning from the experience of developing an NCA account for JDNP, it is necessary to form a central data repository system under the National Statistical Bureau (NSB) where data is regularly and effectively updated, curated, managed, and analysed to serve the NCA accounts.
Different consultations that took place in 2024 have laid the foundation for creating the NCA guidelines for Protected Areas. It is a reiterative process that requires a lot of back and forth with multiple stakeholders involved from different government departments, agencies and institutions. The mix of socio-economic, bio-physical and remote-sensing data makes it a robust process which is necessary to showcase the rich natural capital that Bhutan possesses. With strong enablers, it is imperative to build upon it through awareness, capacity building and data management which will help to facilitate the implementation of these guidelines at a national level.
Dawa Zangpo is the Principal Forestry Officer at the Department of Forest and Park Services, Bhutan.