Details of himalayan ecosystem

1. Submitted by Har Govind
Submitted to
Dr. B.K.Dwivedi & Dr. Vandana Srivastava

2. THE HIMALAYAS-
1. The Himalaya, the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR)
is a dynamic landscape with a rich and remarkable
biodiversity.
2. The IHR covers nearly 7.5 lakhs square kilometers
area.
3. The region , with its varied landscapes and soil
formation, and variety of vegetation types and
climatic conditions, is well known for its unique flora
and fauna, and has a high level of endemism.
4. The region comprises 25000 plant species including
7020 species of fungi, 1159 species of lichen &
2000 species of bryophytes with 300 mammals, 979
birds, 176 reptiles, 105 amphibians, and 269 fresh
water fishes.

3. 5. The region supports over 1748 medicinal plant
species and over 675 of wild edible species.
6. Despite the proven values, the diversity of IHR
region is continuously declining in their natural
habitats.
7. The major causes include habitat destruction,
climate change, road construction, fire,
urbanization, drainage, and other anthropogenic
pressures.
8. Realizing the importance of IHR, a number of
initiatives are taken place globally for its
conservation and sustainable utilization.

5. Threats to Himalayan Ecosystem:
1. Climate Change: Due to the gradual increase of
temperature, the tree line is being pushed up, alpine
and sub-alpine areas are heavily threatened and
intolerant to such temperature changes, various
species are making it to ‘critically endangered’ and
‘extinct in world’ category of IUCN red list.
2. Encroachment: The increasing population pressure
intensify the exploitation of forests and their
biodiversity.
3. Poaching: Illegal trade, smuggling, man-animal
hunting and even retaliation creates major threats to
the wildlife especially endangered species like tigers,
elephants and rhino.

6. 4. Infrastructure Development: To develop economy,
increasing urbanization, construction of roads,
bridges, hotels, industries etc on the ecological
sensitive river banks go unnoticed but has impact on
the biodiversity.
5. Waste Disposal: Himalayan region give rise to
unimaginable non-biodegradable wastes and toxics.
Unplanned and poorly managed tourism in the form
of mountainous expenditions, Himalayan trekking
take such wastes even to remote areas threatening
the biodiversity at the remote regions of Himalayas.
6. Political Reasons: Political unrest often in the form of
insurgencies, Illegal training camps, hideouts of
terrorists etc hardly care of biodiversity of eastern
Himalayas.

7. The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP):
1. It is located in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh,
India, in the far western Himalayas.
2. It is addition to a network of protected areas in
Northern India and provide protection to the
Himalayas.
3. The Himalaya is listed as one of the Conservation
International’s 34 major biodiversity hotspot.
4. GHNP is the home to 832 & 386 number of floral and
faunal species, especially the rarest Himalayan Blue
poppy, the western tragopan and the Himalayan tahr.

8. 5. The Sainj Wildlife Sanctuary and Tirthan Wildlife
Sanctuary was established on the edge of GHNP.
6. In 2010, the 710 sq. km. of Parvati river catchment,
contiguous to the northern boundary of GHNP was
instated as Khirganga National Park for further
conservation of biological diversity.
7. The boundaries of GHNP are also contiguous with
Pin Valley National Park in Trans-Himalayan range(
675sq. Km.), the Rupi Bhabha Wildlife Sanctuary in
the Sutlej watershed; and the Kanawar Wildlife
Sanctuary in Parvati Valley(107.29 sq. km.).

10. National Mission On Himalayas Studies (NMHS):
NMHS has sanctioned 40 demand-driven action research
projects in identified four major targets:
1. Mountain Biodiversity Database
2. Assessment of ecosystem health and harnessing
potential
3. Promoting recovery of sensitive species (rare,
endemic, threatened and economically important
ones)
4. Up-scaling outreach through conservation education.

12. The main identified Thematic Area of Work (TAW) of this
are:
1. Conservation of genetic resources of rare, endemic,
threatened and globally significant flora and fauna
including agro-biodiversity,
2. Invasive Alien Species,
3. Multipurpose trees and other flora, their biology and
uses, ecotone studies, especially the timberline ecotone,
and pilots for Payment of Ecosystem Services(PES) and
Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), medicinal and
aromatic plants and other high value niche products
from the agenda.

13. Few Achievements of NMHS till date:
1. Habitat suitability model for Docynia indica species at
Sikkim.
2. Alternative model for Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)
initiated.
3. Ex-situ conservation sites are developed in Sikkim.
4. Sampling sites for fauna studies in HP, UK, Sikkim, AP
and West Bengal.
5. Alpine MPs Standardized propagation protocol
(produced 30381 plantlets).

14. Measurable targets up to 2020:
1. Mountain Biodiversity Database & Information
System (MBDIS)- focusing on all 12 IHR states.
2. Assessment of ecosystem health and harnessing
potential for overall development by involving State
Biodiversity Board (SBB) and BRs.
3. Linking integrity profiles in conservation policy
framework through SBBs and BR scheme in 12
states.
4. Promoting recovery of threatened species by
involving state and institutional partners.
5. Up-Scaling outreach through conservation education.

15. Overall Objectives of NMHS:
1. Establishment of long term floral diversity monitoring
plots across the Himalayan region.
2. Create a geospatial and genetic database on the flora
of Himalaya and the climate change-induced impact
and anthropogenic impact on floral and faunal diversity.
3. Population and habitat assessment, ecological niche
modelling and conservation of threatened/ high value
medicinal plant.
4. Assessment and monitor the threatened vertebrate
fauna in the Indian Himalayan Region.
5. Germplasm collection and maintains of DNA bank of
selected species.

16. 6. Obtain robust measures of species diversity,
distributions, and community structure for primary
forest that occurs in the study areas.
7. Participatory action research on innovative
interventions to improve livelihoods.
8. Develop the market linkages for selling of cultivated
produce.