ABSTRACT
The status of the Himalayan forests has been a topic of discussion for more than a century. After about 1960 this discourse became more widespread and alarmist until the assumed catastrophic loss of forest cover took the pivotal role in reports suggesting that the entire Himalayan region was facing imminent environmental collapse. These reports were linked together under the title of convenience: The Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation (Ives 1984, 1987a). Any assessment of the Theory can do no better, therefore, than to take forest condition as a prime point of entry.
