Changing Ecological and Hydrological Conditions in the Himalayan Mountains and Measures of Future Adaptation

The Himalayan mountains are one of the important geographical settings of the planet Earth for the source of global freshwaters. The freshwaters from the Himalayas are life supporting systems of the millions of people residing in downstream Asia. However, the high-altitude mountains of the Himalayas have gone through considerable transformations in hydrology and ecology over the recent past. In the 21st century, the hydrological flow regimes of glacial-fed rivers are threatened by both climate change and human disturbances. Rapidly changing temperature and the frequency, duration and timing of monsoonal precipitation have altered glacier melt, river flow, flood, and downstream volume of water. As a result, the ecosystems and biodiversity as well as irrigation-dependent agriculture in the region is profoundly impacted. The fundamental challenge today is therefore to address the issue of water resources through understanding of hydrological and ecological changes of lake and river systems in the region. Ecohydrology is a sustainability concept, which addresses water resource management through understanding of water cycle, including hydrological processes of rivers and lakes and the structure, and function of ecosystems. Putting ecohydrology at the center of the water resource management program, this mini review discusses rapid ecological and hydrological changes of freshwater systems in the Himalayan mountains and suggested some of the key future adaptation strategies of water resources to rapidly changing regional environment.

Legal Yoga

India is well known as the point of historical origin for the worldwide practices of yoga. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first speech at the UN in September 2014, he described yoga as ‘an invaluable gift’ of India’s ‘ancient tradition’. Yoga thrives in India today across a broad social spectrum, from dreadlocked, naked yogis meditating deep in the Himalayan mountains, to hot yoga studios scattered throughout India’s many vibrant urban centres. In the US alone, 36 million people practise yoga regularly and fuel an industry in America that is currently worth $16 billion annually. Yoga today is a phenomenon produced in a complex transnational relationship between the US and India. This global interconnection of histories, practices, cultures, and economies linking two liberal secular democratic superpowers is a difficult weave to unravel. This chapter selects one strand that joins both the US and India and reflects their engagements with yoga in the context of their political structures as secular democratic states. It focuses on moments when yoga has entered into the legal systems of these two countries, with particular attention to the one question that has risen in prominence in both contexts: what is the place of yoga in public education?