Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.

Accepted Paper:

Understanding climate change as a socio-ecological phenomena in the Indian Trans-Himalayas  
Rashmi Singh (Ambedkar University Delhi) Rishi Sharma Suresh Babu (Ambedkar University)

Paper short abstract:

A mixed methods study to understand the socio-economic changes driven by warmer temperatures, development apparatus and market connectivity among an agro-pastoral community in Trans-Himalaya

Paper long abstract:

Recent discourses on pastoralism focus on adaptations made by pastoral communities in response to climate change in the entire Trans-Himalaya. In last three decades, developmental interventions and market connectivity have drastically altered livelihoods and thus human-environment relationships. On the contrary, climate change has also been economically beneficial in parts of Indian Himalayas where increase in temperatures has made some regions suitable for cash cropping. Our study based on ethnographic research in five villages of the Spiti region in North-West Indian Himalayas investigates the quick transition in agro-pastoral community largely driven by success of experimental cropping of green pea and apples. This one major change i) shifted self-sufficient barter based economy to market driven economy, ii) altered agricultural practices and food habits, iii) resulted in decline of livestock numbers where reduced holdings are compositionally different, iv) ensued entry of seasonal laborers from plains who have become the new actors in pasture management and, v) caused loss of cultural practices like weaving, monastery tax in form of traditional crop barley etc. We argue that the present day discourses in ecological studies of pastoral systems should also engage with these socio-ecological dynamics that have implications on agricultural productivity, rangeland vegetation and wildlife conservation.

Panel P16
Himalayan Climate Change
  Session 1