Managing Ecosystem Services for Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in the Hindu Kush Himalayas - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 212

Table 9.1. The 10 major river basins in the Himalayan region.

River basins Basin

area
(sq.km)

Countries Population

(x 1000)

Population density
(per sq. km)

Amu Darya 534,739 Afghanistan, Tajikistan,

Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

20,855 39

Brahmaputra 651,335 China, India, Bhutan,

Bangladesh

118,543 182

Ganges 1,016,124 India, Nepal, China,

Bangladesh

407,466 401

Indus 1,081,718 China, India, Pakistan 178,483 165

Irrawaddy 413,710 Myanmar 32,683 79

Mekong 805,604 China, Myanmar, Laos,

Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam

57,198 71

Salween 271,914 China, Myanmar, Thailand 5,982 22

Tarim 1,152,448 Kyrgyzstan, China 8,067 7

Yangtze 1,722,193 China 368,549 214

Yellow 944,970 China 147,415 156

Total 8,594,755 1,345,241

Source: Adapted from Eriksson et al. (2009).

also closely linked to the presence of mountains, which act as orographic
barriers to the fl ow of moisture-bearing winds and control precipitation
in neighboring regions (Manabe and Terpstra 1974, Kutzbach et al. 1993).
For example, the Himalayas play an important role as a trigger mechanism
for cyclogenesis through their perturbation of large-scale atmospheric
fl ow patterns; they also act as a barrier to atmospheric circulation for both
the summer monsoon and the winter westerlies. The summer monsoon
dominates the climate of the region, but is longest in the eastern Himalayas,
lasting fi ve months (June-October) in Assam, four months (June-September)
in the Central Himalayas, and two months (July-August) in the western
Himalayas (Chalise and Khanal 2001). However, the Himalayas display a
great variability in hydrometeorological conditions: the western Himalayas
and north facing slopes are generally arid and dry, while the eastern
Himalayas and south-facing slopes are generally humid and wet.
The livelihoods of people in the HKH are mainly based on forests,
agro-forestry, wetland and rangeland resources (Chettri and Sharma 2006,
Sharma et al. 2006). The long history of human presence in this ecosystem
and maintenance of its fragility is a strong indicator of compatibility
of satisfaction of community needs through traditional practices, with
biodiversity conservation. The functioning of these systems, in which
the human beings were also part of, greatly depended on surrounding
ecosystem base for various goods and services. These natural resources