Vanishing of the Himalaya forests - and their inhabitants

BEARDED VULTURE: This bird including animals which depend on the forests, will face the risk of extinction with deforestation. Tigers, black bears, musk deer, leopards, golden eagles and bearded vultures that depend on the forests may disappear from the Indian Himalaya by 2100 unless large-scale conservation efforts are in place, according to research findings by a team led by Dr Maharaj Pandit, Senior Visiting Fellow with the NUS University Scholars Programme.

According to Dr Maharaj Pandit (who is also with the University of Delhi) and his team which includes Associate Professor Navjot S Sodhi, NUS Department of Biological Sciences, only 10 per cent of land area of the Indian Himalaya will be left covered by dense forest by 2100 given the state of current deforestation. The researchers have been documenting the effects of large-scale deforestation in this tropical biodiversity hotspot. Their report on the alarming trend of deforestation in the region; and prediction of the likely consequential extinction of endemic taxa (species and subspecies unique to the area) was published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation (2006).












Their findings were based on high-resolution satellite images of the Indian Himalaya dating from 1972-1974, 1980-1983 and 1999-2001. They also went out into the field to verify ground features that could not easily be identified in the images. Those with more than 40 per cent forest cover are classed as dense forest and those with between 10 and 40 per cent of cover, as open forests. By 2000, the region had lost 15 per cent of its forest cover compared with the early 1970s.

The Western Himalaya is expected to suffer higher losses in both total and dense forest cover than the Eastern Himalaya, because of higher human population densities. But they found that Sikkim in Eastern Himalaya is likely to have the least forest cover in 2100 among all the Himalayan states, even though the rate of deforestation is much lower here than any of the Western states. This, says the researchers, may be because forest loss and their impact get accentuated due to smaller geographic size of the state. Also, nearly 50 per cent of the geographic area of Sikkim lies above timberline where forest growth is not possible. Dense forest cover at Western Himalaya will decrease from 61 per cent in 2000 to 16.8 per cent in 2100; and from 76.2 per cent in 2000 to 38.7 per cent at Eastern Himalaya.

The team projected that almost a quarter of the endemic species could be wiped out including 366 endemic plant species and 35 animal species. According to an earlier study led by Associate Professor Sodhi, larger and more specialised species are likely to be lost due to deforestation. In Himalaya, particularly in the sub-tropical and temperate forests, species such as tiger and other members of cat family will be highly vulnerable to extinction. Others include the endangered Hoolock gibbon, musk deer and the Himalayan tahr. They are already facing severe habitat loss, said Dr Pandit.


Official Indian government statistics imply that total forest cover across the Indian Himalaya will expand by more than 40 per cent between 1970 and 2100. But the researchers suspected that the discrepancy between the official figures and their satellite data may stem from poor sampling, a lack of technical expertise and a lack of resources in the government institutes. The researchers also suggested that the more serious threat may be deforestation by villagers rather than commercial logging which the government has been trying to limit through efforts and projects such as the replanting of trees in more remote regions.

These "miscalculations" in land-use decisions could have severe repercussions. Currently, more than 80 per cent of proposed hydro-projects in India are located in the Himalaya and forest lands for such projects are second only to agriculture in India, said Dr Pandit.

The team's research was also featured by the National Geographic News as well as the New Scientist.