ABSTRACT
The mountain environments of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH) have been undergoing rapid transformations in the last three decades at an unprecedented rate. Development imperatives have forced these transformations despite severely inadequate understanding of the biogeophysical processes in these high mountain environments. Development of infrastructures has increased accessibility into these otherwise isolated mountains. Increasing interactions with the outer world have made new demands on available resources as subsistence agriculture is being replaced by market-oriented economy. During the same period these inherently fragile and unstable environments have also witnessed a doubling of the population. Consequently pressure on natural resources has increased enormously, causing widespread degradation of the mountain environments and increasing poverty.
