Title:Impact of Geological Resources on Himalayan Ecosystem

Background

Indian Himalayan region (IHR) represents a geologically fragile, vulnerable and ecologically sensitive zone. This region is prone for the impacts of global climate changes on natural resources. The natural geological wealth/ resources include water (glaciers, rivers, lakes and groundwater) and localized mines, which play important role in maintaining the sustainability of the Himalayan Ecosystem. The landslides are also important factor which affect the Himalayan ecosystem. The various phenomena and natural processes associated with Himalayan eco-system are interrelated and manifested in an interdisciplinary manner.

Objectives

• Establishment of database and information system about Himalayan glaciers, lakes, groundwater, and mineral resources to facilitate policy decision about the sustainable development of Himalayan ecosystem taking into account the work of existing knowledge
• Generation of possible required data to fill the gaps in the information system about      glaciers, lakes, groundwater and mineral resources
• Integration of available information about glaciers- climate and lakes, groundwater-climate land use/land cover population and hydrological data and state of the art models.
• Preparation of database for Himalayan lakes and wetlands for their environmental degradation and sustainability
• Study changes in glacier and snow cover and ground water availability (spring discharges) under various climate change scenarios and to analyse consequential impacts on net water availability in particular on changes in snow and glacier melting  and changed spatio-temporal monsoon patterns. 
• Assessment of the impact of minerals and mining on society and land degradation

Coordinating Institute

Collaborating Institutes

• National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee
• Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun
• Central Ground Water Board, Faridabad
• Indian Bureau of Mines, Nagpur
• Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar (Garhwal)
• Jammu University: Jammu
• Kashmir University: Srinagar
• Nagaland University: Kohima
• GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Almora
• Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Dehradun

Task Force Coordinators