The Hindu Kush Himalaya region, a biosphere which is arguably the world's most important 'water tower', is on the brink of collapse, scientists have sounded alarm bells amid calls for bold action and urgent finance to prevent nature loss in the region. Around 241 million people live in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, of whom 31 per cent are food insecure.
The issue was deliberated at a global meet where more than 130 global experts convened in Kathmandu, Nepal. The occasion was the Third Lead Authors meeting of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) nexus assessment to examine the linkages between food and water security, health, biodiversity and climate change.
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) issued the call as they described the speed and scale of losses in nature and habitat in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, which stretches 3,500 kilometres and spans eight countries -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan -- as catastrophic. It harbours the highest mountain ranges in the world.
"It is almost too late," ICIMOD Deputy Director General Izabella Koziell told delegates to the IPBES meeting.
"Four of the world's 36 global biodiversity hotspots are in this region. Twelve of the global 200 ecoregions, 575 protected areas, 335 important bird areas -- those figures speak for themselves. Yet we are in an accelerating crisis, despite the efforts of everyone here and many in the international community. Seventy per cent of the original biodiversity has been lost over the last century," she said.
"The declines in nature across this region are so advanced and accelerating so fast they now pose a threat to the lives of not just animal and plant life, but also human societies," said IPBES author and ICIMOD Ecosystems Specialist Sunita Chaudhary.
"This is a region that must be urgently prioritised for investment -- to fund the fight to reverse nature loss and species extinction. Worldwide we are seeing a huge uptick in investments in ecosystem restoration and a growing recognition of the role that nature plays in human survival. We must ensure that funding to the Hindu Kush Himalaya (region) rises at an exponential rate before these fragile and crucial ecosystems collapse," she said according to reports.
As per experts, consequences of the loss of Hindu Kush Range are huge such as the river system including those in eastern and north-eastern India which are set to suffer. Also, water availability in the Ganges, Indus and other river basins in the Hindu Kush region is set to increase in the short term and decrease in the long term while natural hazards like floods and landslides are projected to increase over the coming decades and cascade the impacts on the ecosystem
