Nanda Devi Research Articles

Conservation policy–people conflicts: a case study from Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (a World Heritage Site), India

Perceptions of local people towards conservation policy and related management interventions, nature and magnitude of policy–people conflicts and, possible options for conflict resolution were analysed in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site in Indian Himalaya. People's perceptions were discerned through participatory discussions covering 419 households distributed in 10 villages in the buffer zone. Traditional uncodified rights of local people were substantially reduced through policy interventions set in since 1860s. Local people as well as tourists were excluded from the core zone covering an area of 625 km 2 since 1982. Deterioration of rural economy due to damage to crop and livestock by wildlife and, termination of opportunities of income from wild medicinal plant resources and tourism in the core zone were the key negative impacts of conservation policy felt by more than 90% of respondents. Mean annual economic loss per household was estimated as Rs 1285, Rs 1195 and Rs 156 due to damage caused by wildlife to food crops, fruit trees and beehives, respectively, Rs 1587 due to ban on collection of wild medicinal plants for marketing and Rs 7904 due to ban on tourism in the core zone. Reserve authority granted compensation of livestock killed by wildlife but it was hardly 5% of the market value of killed livestock as assessed by the people. People did not appreciate much the present benefits from the reserve management in the form of wages for carrying out afforestation work, partial compensation of livestock depredation and availability of solar power devices, wool, and spinning devices. Approximately 95% respondents identified empowerment of local people in respect of realising income from timber from dead/diseased trees in community forests, income from medicinal plants in buffer zone and opening of core zone for tourism as potential development options. Improvement in rural economy, the prime concern of local people, has not received as much attention as legal enforcement of protection by the reserve management. There is a need for developing policies and management actions that serve the economic interests of local people together with enhancement of environmental conservation goal.

Biosphere reserve management in theory and practice: Case of Nanda Devi biosphere reserve, Western Himalaya, India

The Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) in the western Himalayas is one of the important protected areas in India. In recognition of its conservation value, it was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988. The Nanda Devi west peak (7817 m), the second highest in the country, attracted a large number of mountaineers and nature enthusiasts from all over the world until 1982. However, these activities were banned in 1982 because of the serious damage these activities caused to the biological and cultural diversity of the region. In 1988, an area of 2236 km2 was designated as NDBR. The ecological and socio‐economic studies conducted after the ban revealed that there has been substantial improvement in the biodiversity of the region, while from a socio‐economic point of view the ban proved to be disastrous due to loss of employment associated with mountaineering activities. Additionally, the ban on mountaineering activities, and an absence of alternative employment opportunities, forced local people to migrate from the area. Perception analysis revealed a communication gap between resources users and managers and thus engendered negative attitudes among local communities towards NDBR management. The potential of integrating resource conservation with socio‐economic development was responded to positively by the local people. Problems and prospects of biodiversity conservation have been discussed in the light of the above findings in the NDBR.

Status and distribution of anthropogenic pressure in the buffer zone of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in western Himalaya, India.

Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) (2236.74 km2), extending over three civil districts viz, Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Almora of the state of Uttar Pradesh, is an important protected area of the western Himalaya owing to its rich biological and cultural diversity. The human (n = 1856) and livestock population (n = 7785) of 19 settlements in the buffer zone as well as seasonal grazing by 15 000–20 000 migratory sheep and goats were the major sources of anthropogenic pressure in the reserve. The intensity of wood-cutting and lopping of a total of 35 sampled woody species was assessed in the buffer zone as parameters of anthropogenic pressure. Anthropogenic pressure showed restricted distribution due to the sparse location of human settlements and seasonal use of biomass resources by majority of the inhabitants, who live a trans-humane lifestyle. Intensive wood-cutting was limited to within 2 km radius of human settlements while tree lopping was mainly done by the migratory shepherds around timber-line (3600–3800 m). Of the total cut trees, the proportion of 20–60 cm girth class cut trees was recorded more. The regeneration percentage of tree species was higher in Chamoli and Pithoragarh sectors as compared to the Almora sector of the buffer zone. Fuelwood plantation in the degraded lands around villages through peoples participation, introduction of alternate fuel devices and employment opportunities have been suggested to minimize the dependence of local people on biomass resources and ensure the biodiversity conservation in the NDBR.

Promoting ecotourism in the buffer zone areas of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve: An option to resolve people—policy conflict

The fascination for mountains, breathtaking natural beauty, rich cultural diversity, socioeconomic traditions, history and lifestyles attract mountaineers, trekkers, naturalists ascetics, explorers and cultural tourists from all over the world to the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) and adjoining areas. Expedition/mountaineering and tourism, as a livelihood option for the people living in the buffer zone areas of NDBR, was important, next to animal husbandry and agriculture. Until 1960, Bhotiya people in the buffer zone of NDBR and adjoining areas had a good trade relationship with Tibet. Closure of Indo-Tibetan trade due to the Indo-China war of 1962, followed by imposition of conservation policies due to creation of Nanda Devi National Park in 1982 and Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in 1988, caused all consumptive uses and expedition/ mountaineering to be banned in the core zone, which has not only affected the local economy to a large extent but also created conflict between local people and reserve authorities. The ban on tourism is the most severe concern of the local people as it provided significant income. Of the three complementary functions of a biosphere reserve, viz. conservation, development and logistic support (research and education), the management is biased towards achieving conservation by legal protection which may not be sustainable in the long term. People have started raising a voice against the ban on expedition/tourism in the core zone but have not yet damaged the core zone area. This paper deals with the history of expeditions and the impact on the local economy, identification of model ecotrekking/expedition routes and potential sites, and designing appropriate strategies/action plans for sustainable ecotourism. This will not only help to resolve the local people-policy conflicts and improve the local economy but will also help to achieve the biodiversity conservation goal.

Management Conflicts in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India

Biosphere reserve models around the world are becoming increasingly people-oriented and conservation-conscious in achieving their objectives. However, reserves established in developing countries, such as the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in India, are facing management versus people conflicts due to the insensitivity of management to both genuine and irrational demands coming from people who are motivated by potential economic benefits. The present case study focuses on the issue of crop and livestock depredation by wildlife as a major source of conflict. Feasible solutions in the given socioeconomic context are outlined here; some of these are being tested by the authors in the study area. The results are expected to provide more sustainable livelihood measures and stimulate greater participation in conservation programs.

Medicinal Plant Cultivation and Sustainable Development

The Nanda Devi Bio sphere Reserve (NDBR) in the western Himalaya has a high level of biological and cultural diversity. The Bhotiya community, whose livelihood is highly dependent on local natural resources, inhabits the buffer zone of NDBR. Bhotiya practice seasonal and altitudinal migration and stay inside the buffer zone of NDBR for only 6 months (May-October). A survey was conducted in 1996 in 5 villages in Pithoragarh District of the buffer zone, where Bhotiya cultivate medicinal plants on their agriculture fields. The aim of the survey was to understand the socioeconomics of medicinal plant cultivation and evaluate the future prospects of this practice in promoting sustainable development among the local community. Of a total of 71 families, 90% cultivated medicinal plants on 78% of the total reported cultivated area (15.29 ha). At the time of the survey, a total of 12 species of medicinal plants were under cultivation, of which 6 were being marketed while the remaining 6 were still under nursery plantation for future propagation. On average, a family earns about Rs.2423 ± 376.95 per season from the sale of medicinal plants (Rs.38 = US$1 in 1996). Based on the average productivity (kg/ha/y), we estimated that an average family could earn between Rs.4362 and Rs.86,500 from the sale of medicinal herbs. Encouragement of medicinal plant cultivation at high altitudes in the Himalayas would help to generate better monetary returns as well as conserve these herbs in the wild and preserve traditional ethnomedicinal knowledge among local people.

Analysis and resolution of protected area–people conflicts in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India

Conflicts between local people and protected area managers are a common problem in developing countries, but in many cases there has been little attempt to comprehensively characterize the underlying problems. Resource uses, management practices, economy and people's perceptions of problems and likely solutions were analysed in two villages near and two villages away from the core zone of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in the Indian Himalaya. Agriculture, although practised on less than 1% of the area, was the primary occupation of local people. Six annual crops of a total of 22 and all four horticultural crops on private farms were damaged by wildlife, but Reserve management provided compensation only for livestock killing by wildlife and compensation amounted to only 4–10% of the total assessed monetary value of killed livestock. A variety of wild plant products were used locally but 27 were marketed by more than 50% of surveyed families; income from wild products was substantially lower than that from crops and livestock. A sociocultural change from a subsistence to a market economy, together with changes in traditional land/resource rights and institutions, has led to a number of changes in land-use and management practices. The livestock population has declined, agricultural area has remained the same and people have started cultivating medicinal species in the last 20 years. These changes seem complementary to the goal of conservation. However, changes such as abandonment of some traditional food crops and stress on cash crops lacking fodder value, requiring substantial manure inputs derived from forest litter and livestock excreta, and causing severe soil erosion, seem to counter the goal of environmental conservation. Some government-managed Reserve Forest sites were similar to the Community Forests in terms of species richness, basal area and soil physico-chemical properties. Two Reserve Forest sites showed basal areas of 160.5–191.5 m2/ha, exceeding the highest values reported so far from the region. The formal institutional framework of resource management seems to be not as effective as the traditional informal system. The Reserve Management Plan lays more emphasis on legal protection than on the sustainable livelihood of local communities and has led to conflicts between local people and reserve managers. Plantation of fodder and medicinal species in degraded forest lands, suppression of economic exploitation of local people in the market, enhancement of local knowledge of the economic potential of biodiversity, incentives for cultivation of crops with comparative advantages and lesser risks of damage by wildlife, and rejuvenation of the traditional involvement of the whole village community in decison-making, could be the options for resolving conflicts between people and protected areas in this case.

Ethnobiology of high altitude Himalayan communities in District Chamoli: A conservation perspective

Received 12 December 1998; Accepted 1 September 1999 Introduction Chamoli is the second largest district in the state of Uttar Pradesh with an area of 9130 sq.km. having a population of about 40 people per sq.km. as compared to 377 for the state (Anonymous, undated). However, some parts of Chamoli have now been included in a newly announced and established district of Uttarakhand (Rudraprayag), but the boundary is yet to be demarkated. For the purpose of present investigation, old existing records regarding geography of District Chamoli are given here. The district is situated in the central part of western Himalaya, lying between 29055'N to 3102'N and 78054'E to 8002'E. It is surrounded by Tibet and Uttarkashi District on its north, Pauri in the south, Almora and Pithoragarh in the east and by Tehri Garhwal in the west. The important peaks in different mountain ranges are Nanda Devi, Trishuli, Nanda Ghungti, Chaukhamba and Neelkanth.

Typical debris accumulation forms and formations in High Asia – A glacial-history-based concept of the origin of Postglacial debris accumulation landscapes in subtropical high mountains with selected examples from the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram and the Himalayas

An abridged version of a geomorphological inventory and typology of Postglacial debris accumulations in High Asia is presented, with selected examples from the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram and the Himalayas. The debris accumulations were surveyed in the course of four research expeditions lasting a total of ten months in selected valley systems of High Asia (the eastern Hindu Kush, the northwestern Karakoram, the Nanga Parbat massif (Pakistan), the Ladakh and Zanskar ranges, the Nun Kun massif, the Kumaon and Garhwal Himalayas with the Kamet, Trisul and Nanda Devi massifs (India) and in the central Himalayas with the Kanjiroba, Annapurna, Manaslu and Makalu massifs (Nepal)). The study areas being widely scattered, a supraregional comparison of the debris accumulations proved possible. The debris accumulations are considered in centre-to-periphery sequences from the mountain interior to the mountain fringes, and in vertical sequences, i.e. altitudinal zones, taking into account their topographical relationship to adjoining elements of the landscape. Supraregional and climate-specific types of debris accumulation are distinguished and it is recognized that the debris accumulations of the Karakoram and the Himalayas resemble each other more closely with increasing elevation.

New Findings concerning the Ice Age (Last Glacial Maximum) Glacier Cover of the East-Pamir, of the Nanga Parbat up to the Central Himalaya and of Tibet, as well as the Age of the Tibetan Inland Ice

The results presented on the glacio-geomorphological reconstruction of a maximum Ice Age (LGM = Last Glacial Maximum) glaciation in High-Asia concern five test-areas in and around Tibet (Figure 1, Nos. 14, 6, 17, 2, 9, 18, 16). For the E-Pamir plateau and its mountains a covering ice cap is proved; a snow-line (ELA)-depression of 820–1250 m in relation to the present relief has been calculated. The Ice Age snow-line ran at 3750–3950 m asl. In the Nanga Parbat-massif a glacial (LGM) ice-stream network with a snow-line altitude (ELA) at c. 3400– 3600 m has been reconstructed. This corresponds to an ELA-depression of at least 1200 m. The lowest ice margin site of the connected 1800–1900 m-thick Indus glacier flowed down to c. 800 m asl. From N-Tibet the author introduces further observations of ground moraines and erratics from a high plateau area he had already investigated in 1981. They provide evidence of a complete inland ice sheet in Tibet. From the S edge of Tibet six large outlet glacier systems i.e. lowest High Glacial ice margin sites of the Himalaya ice-stream network are reconstructed. This is a continuation of the investigations in 1977, 1978, 1982, 1984, 1988 and 1989 between Kangchendzonga in the E and Nanda Devi in the W. In this place probably the lowest glacial glacier end of the Himalaya-S-slope was found at c. 460 m asl at the Dumre settlement, S of the Manaslu. C14-datings from the Tsangpo valley on the S edge of Central Tibet classify the reconstructed Tibetan ice as being from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) between older than 48580 ± 4660–2930 and 9820 ± 350 YBP. From this empirical findings and inductive results on the Ice Age Tibetan glaciation are derived deductive conclusions on the interaction of the relief and the snow-line altitude with concern to the ice cover. Modelling by means of those snow-line depressions and estimations of the precipitation provide ideas about surface heights, ice thicknesses and flow behaviour of the ice sheet. The hypothesis of a global triggering of the ice age by the uplift of the subtropical Tibet up to above the snow-line motivates the investigations presented here.

On Protecting Nature Monuments: The case of Nanda Devi

On Protecting Nature Monuments: The case of Nanda Devi

A Flight in the Region of Nanda Devi, 1939

A Flight in the Region of Nanda Devi, 1939

Royal Geographical Society: Medals and Awards

H.M. THE KING has approved the award of the Koyal Medals as follows: Founder's Medal to Mr. John Rymill, for his organization and leadership of the British Graham Land Expedition 1934–37 ; Patron's Medal to Mr. Eric Shipton, for his explorations around Nanda Devi and Mount Everest and his conduct of the Shaksgam Expedition of 1937. The Council has made the following awards: Victoria Medal to Mr. A. R. Hinks, for his contributions to the study of geodesy and the figure of the earth, map projections, and photogrammetric survey ; Murchison Grant to Mr. Martin Lindsay, for his journey across Greenland in 1934 ; Back Grant to Mr. Thomas Hay, for his contributions to the physical geography of the Lake District ; Cuthbert Peek Grant to Mr. Bradford Washburn, for his explorations and glacier studies in Alaska; Gill Memorial to Mr. Ivan Champion, for his explorations and surveys in Papua.

The Ascent of Nanda Devi

The Ascent of Nanda Devi

Mapping in the Nanda Devi Basin

Mapping in the Nanda Devi Basin

More Explorations Round Nanda Devi

MOUNTAINEERS will have been interested to learn that the Survey of India is now engaged on a new half-inch survey of the mountain regions of Kumaon and Garhwal. Previous surveys, as produced on the present Vinch sheets 53 N and 62 B, had been confined almost entirely to the populated and revenue-producing areas in or near to the great arterial valleys. Most of the glacier-covered country and the remoter valleys of these sheets are very sketchily drawn, in many places indeed so sketchily as to bear no resemblance whatever to the ground in question. Over much of the country too it has been found necessary to extend the primary triangulation. While engaged on this task in the Badrinath-Kedarnath range, Major Osmaston found that the whole trunk of the Gangotri Glacier was in fact several miles west of the position allotted to it on the map. I hope that now at last we shall have a final solution to the topographical problems which, as a result of the vague data recently brought back by various expeditions, have excited so much discussion. The usual method employed for hill surveys in India is plane-tabling by Indians, who are each responsible for a section of the area. They work with remarkable speed and neatness, and under close supervision of their officers they produce very good work. But in the high Himalaya they are faced by unusual difficulties. Not being trained mountaineers they have great difficulty in moving their parties about in the glacier regions and in reaching suitable stations. Owing to the peculiar difficulties presented by the country round Nanda Devi it was decided to depart from the usual practice and to send Major Osmaston, who is in charge of these mountain surveys, to carry out a photographic survey of the basin drained by the Rishi Ganga. As I had made a reconnaissance of the region in 1934, the Survey Department invited me to accompany the party in order to assist Major Osmaston with the route and in the selection of suitable stations. A Wild photo-theodolite and one hundred plates were taken as well as a 7

Mock Suns observed at Nanda Devi in Garhwal

DURING the recent British American Himalayan Expedition, from an altitude of about 21,000 ft. on Nanda Devi in Garhwal, we saw at 3.30 p.m. on August 20 a particularly fine display of parhelia, or mock suns. The two lateral images and the lower one were especially bright, and were arranged as usual on a broad halo of light. The weather was cold at the time, unusually so even at that altitude for the monsoon period, 20° F. being recorded on the mountainside that same evening. We had on several previous occasions seen solar haloes, as we approached Nanda Devi via the Rishiganga gorge, but no certain appearance of mock suns, and the weather following the occurrence of these haloes had been fair and not particularly cold.

Nanda Devi

Nanda Devi

Nanda Devi and the Ganges Watershed

Nanda Devi and the Ganges Watershed

Nanda Devi and the Ganges Watershed: Discussion

Nanda Devi and the Ganges Watershed: Discussion