Himalayan Peril

One of the world’s richest biological areas—the Eastern Himalayas, where 350 new species have been discovered in the past ten years—is also the most vulnerable to global climate change.

One of the world’s richest biological areas—the Eastern Himalayas, where 350 new species have been discovered in the last ten years—is also the most vulnerable to global climate change, warns the WWF.
In its recent report ‘Where the Worlds Collide’, the Eastern Himalayas is identified as being on par with well-known biological hotspots such as Borneo.

Despite protection efforts in the last half century, only 25 per cent of the original habitat remains intact and 163 species in the Eastern Himalayas are seen as globally threatened. The factors to blame are forest destruction due to unsustainable and illegal logging, agriculture, unsustainable fuel wood collection, overgrazing, illegal poaching and wildlife trade, mining, pollution, hydropower development, and poorly planned infrastructure.

The WWF report calls for the governments of Bhutan, India and Nepal to commit to a shared vision that recognises the global significance of the region.

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Pallavi Polanki