Climate change in South Asia and the role of the Himalayas

Bhagirathi River just after its origin in Gomukh, this river is the main source of river Ganges, originating from a glacier with the same name.

South Asia is home to more than 25% of the world's population; all of the countries in this region such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal are heavily populated. Out of that large population, a substantial number of people live in a region known as the Ganga Brahmaputra Meghna basin, the most populated river basin in the world. Ganga Brahmaputra and Meghna, all three rivers originate in the Himalayas.

For as long as I remember I was always in love with mountains. When I was 10-12 years old, my father took us to Deoghar, a tiny hill station in present-day Jharkhand, it is a Plateau with many small hills covered under thick forests. This was the first time I ever saw a mountain and without the supervision of elders, I climbed a hill, which was a few hundred meters high and without any clear path to the top. From the top, the world looks different, and I felt a sense of solitude and freedom.

Bhagirathi glacier is melting relatively faster than before; in the last few decades it melted alarmingly. Due to the shift of the glacier this whole area becomes very unstable. Here are two photos of the same spot in 2015 and 2018, the mouth was there in 2015 but it was gone in the next photo.

But it takes another few years to truly fall in love with the mountains. When I visited the Himalayas for the first time, I chose the traditional place of all the Bangalees to start their journey in the world's largest mountain range, Darjeeling, the queen of the Hills.

Films were precious for me and I had only one roll of film for these ten days of the trip. I used it very carefully, shooting only a few snaps a day with a borrowed camera and after a lot of consideration about composition with my limited knowledge of photography. But the heartbreaking thing was that the camera was not in perfect working condition and the roll was damaged  inside, which I eventually found out after it was developed.

A Shepherd on the way to Rudranath, inside a dense pine forest, millions of people depend on the geological treasure of the Himalayas for their livelihood.

Maybe the roll was damaged but that trip to the Himalayas was a defining moment for me. After many years after that trip, when I started working after my graduation, earning some money of my own, I brought my first camera and was able to make a trip to many places in the Indian Himalayas, my love for the mountain revived.

Mount Bhagirathi group of peaks, known as Bhagirathi sisters with an abandoned house on foreground in bhojbasa, on the way to the source of Ganges.

Since then I travelled to various parts of the Indian Himalayas every time I got time and opportunity. Photography worked as a catalyst for the whole process, it is the driving force behind all this wandering. 

Elderly potato farmers, beside the river alakanada, those places are covered under thick snow in winter, and they have only six months to do farming to produce food for the winter.

Over the years I have witnessed a change in travelling in the Himalayas, with the explosion of social media in the last decades, the influx of tourists increased and it has created enormous pressure on the very fragile ecosystem of the mountains. Due to increasing population, roads, bridges and other constructions mushroomed the whole Himalayas. Moreover, because of global warming, the Himalayas glaciers are melting faster than ever.

Asha, 8, playing in the school compound in a remote village named Dumak in Uttrakhand, this village is still cut off from the rest of the world as mobile networks can not be reached here. Two days walk into the forest from the nearest motorable road.

All these things are shaping our future direction and purpose of photography. Some years ago, our aim to take photos in the Himalayas was to capture the beauty and grandeur of the mountains. But I don't believe that anymore. Now our purpose of photography should be directed to the more important issue of climate change and its effect on the Himalayan ecosystem, along with creating awareness among the people about the danger we are facing because of this. 

Brahmaputra river as seen from the sky in Assam, India , before entering Bangladesh , where it is known as Jamuna. This river originated in the Tibet Himalayas, and is one of the world's largest river systems.

As this is going to affect all of us in South Asia, even people living in faraway places like coastal Bangladesh are also going to suffer from the rapid meltdown of the Himalayan glaciers. Because this will increase the volatility in the river systems that hold this region.

Indus River in Ladakh.

A sadhu in Uttrakhand Himalayas, Himalays has many pilgrimage sites for Hindu, Sikhs and Buddhists, visited by millions of people throughout the years.

First morning light on a Himalayan village surrounded by dense forest in Uttrakhand.