Abstract
People of Dhye village are recognized as the Nepal’s first climate refugees. Historical records show that mass migration of people from Dhye village has occurred for three times, with latest one attributed to the climate change. This article aims to explore and understand the underlying causes of the Dhye people’s migration, and to analyze the land suitability for their relocation. The article discusses that people of Dhye have migrated mainly to look for livelihood options, water availability and land for cultivation. As of now, more than two dozen water ponds have dried completely, and the only community reservoir serves as main source of irrigation water. This led to a decrease in cultivated area by one-fourth within last 40 years. The livestock farming has also been decreasing year by year with only one yak herder left in the entire Dhye village. The temperature trend is positive, whereas precipitation trend is negative. The land suitability analysis done by using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) shows that Thangchung Chawale village is more suitable location than Dhye village in terms of cultivation area, water availability, and distance to health-post and transportation facilities.
Highlights
The high-altitude cold deserts of greater Himalayan region or Trans-Himalayan region are among the most vulnerable ecosystems to climatic changes (Christensen and Heilmann, 2009; Sharma and Tshering, 2009)
The secondary data were collected from Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) and Central Bureau of Statistics
The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of 30×30 resolution was extracted from SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) and the study area layer was digitized from Geo-Eye Satellite image from
Summary
The high-altitude cold deserts of greater Himalayan region or Trans-Himalayan region are among the most vulnerable ecosystems to climatic changes (Christensen and Heilmann, 2009; Sharma and Tshering, 2009). Mustang is an ancient isolated kingdom located in the Trans-Himalaya region of north-western Nepal with very low population density and arid cold climate. Mustang represents fragile ecosystem, and inhabitant communities try to balance their livelihood with available resources. Mustang is divided into two regions: Upper Mustang and Lower Mustang. Lo-pa (Upper Mustang) falls under rain-shadow zone of Nepal. Upper Mustang is known for its severe winter and is one of the coldest regions of Nepal, as the temperature drops down to -20o to -30o Celsius in winter. Life and livelihood in many mountain settlements in Nepal are under stress from desertification, drought and water scarcity (Shrestha, 2016)
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