The Indian Himalayan Ecosystem as Source for Survival

Abstract

The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) covers ~95 districts of the Indian union, which starts from the foothills in the south (Siwalik); the region extends to the Tibetan Plateau in the north (trans-Himalaya). The IHR occupies the strategic position of the entire northern boundary (northwest to northeast) of the country and touches almost all the international borders of seven countries with India. The contribution of India is ~16 % of total geographical area, out of which ~17 % area is under permanent snow cover and ~35 % is under seasonal snow cover. The IHR is responsible for providing water to a large part of the Indian subcontinent and contains varied flora and fauna; it was estimated that ~40 million of the population reside in this region. The Indian Himalayan rivers run off ~1,600,000 million m 3 of water annually for drinking, irrigation, hydropower, etc. The IHR has been a potential source of important medicinal herbs and shrubs. This region is extremely rich in plant life and abounds in genetic diversity of all types of fauna and flora. The medicinal virtues of the northwest (NW) Himalayan plants are well known from the early times of the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata and are mentioned in the oldest Hindu scriptures, viz., Rigveda, which is said to be the source of the Ayurvedic medicine system. These high hills are the storehouse of numerous herbs and shrubs, which are exploited not only for the pharmaceutical industries worldwide. In fact, a large percentage of crude drugs in the Indian market come from this Himalayan region. Besides this, the Himalayan regions remain as a source of many cereal crops, pulses, vegetables, fruits, and animal husbandry. The climate change impact is at a global level, and this Himalayan region is no exception. Due to the climatic changes, a lot of disturbances happening like flooding, drought, wildfire, and other global changes derive from pollutions and overexploitation of resources. These changes drastically degrade our natural resources, and nowadays it challenges a need to adopt a comprehensive master plan for conservation of these resources for the survival in the future.