The future of the Third Pole, the eastern Himalaya (and the planet)
By Ranjit Barthakur, Karishma Ahmed and Michael Dawson
Straddling a country boat in the Jhanji-mukh river of Jorhat in Assam, Kamaleshwar Kutum takes us across his village to the site of an agroforestry plantation. It’s 2022 and his post-pandemic endeavour involves resurrecting the tropical green cover around the river banks, and the creation of a barrier of thorny Ximolu trees around the site to dissuade wild elephants from raiding crops. The agroforestry site initially consisted of lemon, chillies, ginger, moringa, turmeric, papaya, and such like, set to scale into a larger community-driven plantation. It was but natural for Kutum, who also began the first fishery of the village in his backyard, to grasp that an emerging sustainable land use practice like agroforestry would create the opportunity for a resilient and productive agricultural system for his people, who faced threats from the unpredictability of the climate crisis,
The Jhanji river originates in Nagaland, where, in the district of Zunheboto, Ivan Zhimomi is the team leader of the Tizu (river) Valley Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Network, created to tackle over-hunting, over-fishing and the degradation of forests. Their home, a region of pristine blue mountains and dense forests faces an unprecedented threat of diminishing forest cover and ecosystem depredation. This is why his people chose to unite with adjoining villages to form a Community Conservation Area to protect their biodiversity and forests from hunting and logging. To survive, they decided to boost their ecological resilience by adopting solutions ranging from forest restoration and agroforestry to diverse livelihood opportunities including mushroom farming.
The Eastern Himalaya, a majestic mountain range stretching across India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, and Myanmar, plays a pivotal role in shaping the ‘Third Pole of the World’ on account of its vast expanse of ice and snow, rivalling the Arctic and Antarctic. This is a biodiversity hotspot, home to over 12,000 plant and animal species, many of which are endemic. Photo: Saurabh Sawant.
Such are the emerging climate resilience strategies of communities living along these rivers. But tragically, such people who have lived close to the earth for generations, find themselves in trouble not of their making.
Where the Jhanji meets the Brahmaputra in Assam to flow into Bangladesh, the immensely diverse landscape of the Eastern Himalayan region faces an unprecedented crisis.
The Eastern Himalaya, a majestic mountain range stretching across India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, and Myanmar, plays a pivotal role in shaping what has come to be called the ‘Third Pole of the World’ on account of its vast expanse of ice and snow, rivalling the Arctic and Antarctic. The climate here is influenced by the South Asian monsoon, and the extensive riverine system shapes much of the life of the region. This is a biodiversity hotspot, home to over 12,000 plant and animal species, many of which are endemic… found nowhere else on Earth.
Not surprisingly, climate change presents an existential threat to this Eastern Himalayan biodiversity wonderland.
As predicted, rising global temperatures are causing glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, triggering changes in water flow patterns, with an increased risks of flooding and landslides… exactly as predicted by the IPCC and other agencies decades ago.
Such warnings were largely ignored. But they now present far-reaching consequences for agriculture, hydropower generation and biodiversity in the region. This has, as predicted by The Stern Review, altered precipitation patterns, leading to more frequent and intense droughts and floods, quicker than even the most dire consequences predicted by over 1,000 scientists.
This has profound implications for heavily populated countries such as India and Bangladesh, as their rivers – the Brahmaputra and Ganges – originate in the Himalaya. These rivers have been vital lifelines of the region and as the glaciers recede, the seasonal flow of these rivers have become more unpredictable, leading to water shortages during dry seasons and killer floods during the monsoons.
The warnings of increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is now a reality at the hands of a biosphere wronged by Homo sapiens.
In a region beset by floods, to which both plants and animals had adapted over eons, people and ecosystems are now being assaulted by a climate catastrophe that is grossly amplifying the occurrence of floods, droughts, and cyclones in the region. In India, heavy rainfall and glacial melt has led to devastating floods, causing widespread damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and human settlements. Bangladesh, being a low-lying country, is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and cyclones. In areas like India’s Eastern Himalaya, rapidly increasing glacial melt and changed rainfall patterns have changed the behaviour of rivers like the Brahmaputra. To their dismay, economists and the political systems are now waking to the reality of widespread damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and human settlements. In contrast, during dry seasons, water scarcity has become acute for those relying on agriculture, fishing, and forestry for their subsistence, and for those living in faraway urban areas, where people imagined they were inured from the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
As climate change disrupts ecosystems, communities are facing increasing difficulties in maintaining their traditional livelihoods. In many areas, the existing rural economic crisis has worsened, which has tragically led to the depletion of forested, ecologically rich areas that gave rise to our ancient cultures. These natural ecosystems are lynchpins for all planned future strategies against our self-inflicted climate woes. Photo Courtesy: Balipara Foundation.
As climate change disrupts these ecosystems, today it has become increasingly difficult for communities to maintain their traditional livelihoods. In many areas, an already existing rural economic crisis has worsened, and this has tragically led to the depletion of very forested, ecologically rich areas that gave rise to our ancient cultures and are linchpins for all planned future strategies against our self-inflicted climate woes.
Beyond the direct impact on water availability, climate change equally affects the ecological health of the region’s watersheds. Deforestation, driven by land conversion for agriculture, and infrastructure development, such as dams and highways in the Himalaya, severely exacerbate the impacts of climate change. Forests play a crucial role in regulating water flow, preventing soil erosion, and absorbing carbon dioxide. The loss of such habitats, coupled with inappropriate developmental planning, has led to increased flooding, landslides, and changes in biodiversity.
According to data from the Global Forest Watch, Northeast India experienced a devastating loss of 17,650 sq. km. of tree cover between 2001 and 2023. This figure represents over 75 per cent of the country’s total loss of tree cover during the period.
It’s time to call a spade a spade. Decades of concerted denial, doubt and delay prioritising short-term economic gains over investment in the future has eroded our planetary resilience. This continues today, as projects and policies inimical to real climate actions are pushed through in defiance of urgent ecological warnings. This is placing immense pressure, not only on the Third Pole and the Eastern Himalaya, but the entire planet. Industrial agriculture and infrastructure development are destroying habitats and degrading ecosystems in virtually every nation. The loss of forests contributes to soil erosion, landslides, and climate change. Plastics now not only pollute every water body on the planet, but also our air and the bodies of every living creature. The exponential extraction of natural resources to feed increasing industrial demand, from the timber and minerals in our forests to deep-sea minerals, continues to destroy the capacity of natural systems to regenerate. All these will have far more devastating ecological consequences than the ones we see manifested today. Pollution continues to form the locus of our attention, but much more threatening to life on Earth is the steady death of soils across the globe at the hands of chemical pesticides and fertilisers, and mining for minerals.
Amidst these challenges, a growing movement of individuals and organisations is working tirelessly to combat climate change and protect the fragile Himalayan environment.
Indigenous communities, with their deep-rooted knowledge of the Himalaya, are playing a vital role in climate change mitigation. Their historical traditional practices of forest management incorporate principles of environmental stewardship. It is vital that those working to protect the biosphere from biodiversity loss and climate change find ways to learn from communities that have lived close to the land for aeons, and empower them to scale their solutions for climate change across larger territories. Indigenous communities possess valuable knowledge about sustainable resource management and climate adaptation. Their traditional practices should be integrated into climate change mitigation efforts. In a village in Baligaon, Sonitpur, Assam, for instance, elders and youth of the Mising community have come together to create nurseries of indigenous plants and medicinal herbs in their backyards. In Nagaland, community conserved areas augment traditional community forest management practices, to protect biodiversity.
One of the most effective strategies for mitigating climate change in the Eastern Himalaya is by practising sustainable agriculture. While slash and burn agriculture is no longer sustainable, other traditional technologies such as terraced farming have proven to be more resilient to climate variability. By supporting these methods and investing in climate-smart agriculture, local communities are reducing their carbon footprint while bolstering food security. In Arunachal Pradesh, traditional shifting cultivation, known as jhum, is quietly being modified to reduce its environmental impact. Individuals like Ivan Zhimomi, a community leader from Sukhai village, Zunheboto district, Nagaland, are at the forefront of the movement to incorporate the agroforestry models of jhum cultivation on a larger scale, albeit in settled form – eliminating the pressures shifting cultivation places on forest areas. Several initiatives have begun promoting organic farming in states such as Sikkim and Meghalaya, thus improving soil health by reducing dependence on toxic chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
Addressing the climate crisis in the Eastern Himalaya requires a holistic approach that involves a combination of policy frameworks, international cooperation and research. Such policies must viscerally promote sustainable land use practices, protect biodiversity, invest in renewable energy, and strengthen disaster preparedness. Photo Courtesy: Balipara Foundation.
Another crucial endeavour is preventing deforestation, which not only contributes to climate change but also erodes biodiversity. Reforestation efforts, coupled with sustainable forest management practices, are helping to restore degraded ecosystems, thereby effectively sequestering and storing carbon. Moirangthem Loiya in Imphal (West), Manipur, converted a barren land of 300 acres on a hillock into a thriving forest with a wide variety of plant species including many types of bamboo, ultimately going on to establish the Wildlife and Habitat Protection Society (WAHPS). In the village of Phayeng, community conservation of the forest and elimination of deforestation in the community forest areas has replenished perennial streams, providing them with year-round access to water.
As international organisations and governments step up their efforts to address climate change in the Eastern Himalaya, a more concerted and cooperative movement needs to emerge to build resilience and capacity among local communities and governments. Addressing the climate crisis in the Eastern Himalaya requires a holistic approach that involves a combination of policy frameworks, international cooperation and research, that extends beyond localised initiatives and movements and brings these efforts together. It calls for a multifaceted approach involving broader structures, such as policy frameworks and international cooperation to enforcing stricter climate targets and action for the region. Such policies must viscerally promote sustainable land use practices, protect biodiversity, invest in renewable energy, and strengthen disaster preparedness. All this with effective monitoring and evaluation systems to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
Everyone agrees that international cooperation is vital in addressing the climate crisis. This is particularly true of India and its neighbours in the Eastern Himalaya. Our transboundary reality necessitates collaboration among multiple countries to develop and implement effective solutions. Here, the vast interconnected nature of these ecosystems makes coordinated efforts and knowledge sharing a survival imperative.
As the world grapples with the escalating climate crisis, the Eastern Himalaya’s role and the future of the Third Pole is destined to be as critical as the melting North and South Poles. Safeguarding this region from its imminent meltdown will determine how we will be remembered by future generations.