Summary Stein T. Holden and Prem L. Sankhayan, ‘Population Pressure, Agricultural Change and Environmental Degradation in the Western Himalayan Region of India’, Forum for Development Studies, 1998:2, pp. 271–300. This article provides a conceptual and methodological basis for studying the population-agriculture-environment nexus in the western Himalayan state of India, namely, Himachal Pradesh. A number of theories used to explain the phenomenon of environment degradation, including the neo-liberal, environmental economics and imperfect information and transaction cost theories, have been discussed. We apply a pressure-state-response framework in our analysis. The general features of the study region, and the institutional structure at community level, the human activities (pressure variables) responsible for deforestation and soil erosion, and the responses which have evolved over time to counter these problems, have been outlined. The study concludes that in spite of a rapidly increasing population, only recently checked, the performance of the state in protecting the environment appears encouraging and may serve as a model for similar areas in the Himalayas. The major unresolved problem is the increasing numbers of livestock as the Green Revolution has had little impact on livestock production. The livestock pressure is a major cause of forest degradation. Remedial action in form of livestock research and finding alternatives to livestock production should have high priority.