Palaeoenvironmental proxies indicate long-term development of agro-pastoralist landscapes in Inner Asian mountains

A growing body of archaeological research on agro-pastoralist populations of the Inner Asian mountains indicates that these groups adapted various systems of mobile herding and cultivation to ecotopes across the region from as early as 5000 BP. It has been argued that these adaptations allowed the development of flexible social-ecological systems well suited to the long-term management of these mountain landscapes. At present, less attention has been paid to examining the long-term ecological legacy of these adaptations within the sedimentary or palaeoenvironmental record. Here we present sediment, palynomorph and charcoal data that we interpret as indicating agro-pastoralist environmental perturbations, taken from three cores at middle and high altitudes in the Kashmir Valley at the southern end of the Inner Asian mountains. Our data indicate spatially and temporally discontinuous patterns of agro-pastoralist land use beginning close to 4000 BP. Periods of intensification of upland herding are often coincident with phases of regional social or environmental change, in particular we find the strongest signals for agro-pastoralism in the environmental record contemporary with regionally arid conditions. These patterns support previous arguments that specialised agro-pastoralist ecologies across the region are well placed to respond to past and future climate deteriorations. Our data indicating long-term co-evolution of humans and landscape in the study area also have implications for the ongoing management of environments generally perceived as “pristine” or “wilderness”.

Two flower fly species (Diptera: Syrphidae) new to India

Based on adult morphology and DNA barcoding, two flower fly species are reported for the first time from India: Helophilus trivittatus (Fabricius, 1805) and Lejogaster tarsata (Megerle in Meigen, 1822). These species were collected from the Kashmir Valley, in the northern fringe of the Western Himalaya of the Indian subcontinent.

An analytical model for mountain wave in stratified atmosphere

An analytical, two-dimensional computer model has been developed for real time prediction of 'mountain wave due to Principal mountains over Kashmir valley. Simulation of the L2 profile has been made with realistic, non-zero values at higher levels and exponentially decreasing values at lower levels. Unlike Doos (1961), present solution has no restriction on the value of wave number (k). Validity of the model has been tested with the satellite observed waves in seven cases and actual aircraft report in one case.

Developing a Hazard Profile of The Kashmir Valley Through Historical Data Analysis For The Period 1900-2020

Disasters not only cause high mortality and suffering, but thwart developmental activities and damage local economies in process of formation. A part of the NW Himalayas, the Kashmir Valley is very distinct with respect to its location, topography, climate, socioeconomic structure, and strategic geopolitical nature owing to which it has witnessed a multitude of disasters ranging from local incidents of rockfalls to catastrophic earthquakes, and has often paid heavily in terms of loss of life and property. However, the information on most of the events is either partially reported or exaggerated or sometimes not recorded at all and largely scattered. Availability of organized and reliable record of past hazards and disasters is essential for tackling the risks and mitigating the future disasters. In this context, the present study attempts to address the lack of data availability by focusing on developing a dependable hazard and disaster catalogue of the Kashmir Valley by investigating into the existing literature and the available secondary data sources. A record of natural hazards and disasters most prevalent in the valley viz., earthquakes, floods, landslides and snow avalanches, has been compiled for the time period 1900 to 2020 by making use of various secondary sources, comprising of 1854 events with a range of triggers and impacts reported in the valley, which provide an insight into the spatial and temporal (frequency and distribution) trends of different hazard types for the selected time-period. Developing a catalogue of events reported in the Kashmir Valley can help in building a hazard and disaster scenario which serves as a reliable information source and is of great value from the perspective of regional design, planning and policy responses to promote disaster risk reduction.