Shifting dynamics of peoples, livelihoods and territories, influenced by global warming, require new ways of thinking and new kinds of politics beyond the sovereignties of idealized traditional European nation-states. The Routledge International Handbook of Himalayan Environments, Development and Wellbeing features over 70 scholars from the social sciences, humanities and natural sciences who explore the interrelationships between environmental change, development and wellbeing across the entire Himalayan region from the Indian Himalayas in the east to Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet (TAR), India and Gilgit-Baltistan in the west.
Within over 50 chapters, the handbook presents engaging field-based research on the regions socio-cultural diversity, climate adaptation and socio-economic transformation. It examines creative ways Himalayan communities adapt, seek wellbeing and respond to environmental and development challenges. Lessons about learning from Indigenous and local peoples, about governance of forests and water, and grassroots conservation practices from the Himalayan region can help inform global networks of researchers and practitioners.
The handbook will interest scholars, students, stakeholders and the public about the evolving relationships between Himalayan peoples, territories and global warming, offering insights into peoples creative ways for understanding, adapting, and seeking wellbeing in environmental relations and development possibilities.
With contributions by over 70 leading scholars from across the social sciences, humanities and natural sciences, this handbook explores the interrelationships that have emerged from environmental changes, development endeavors, and individual and community wellbeing.
Dedication List of figures List of tables Preface Acknowledgments List
of contributors Acronyms and abbreviations Handbook Introduction Part I:
Environments Introduction: Storytelling Social Ecologies of Change
1. Forest
Change and Human-Forest Interactions in the Himalaya
2. The Role of
Historical Ecology to Assess Risks to Livelihood in the Himalayas from
Climate Warming
3. A Historical Case Study in Women-led Socio-Ecological
Innovation: How Gender and Environment Came to Matter in 15th Century Tibet
(and Now)
4. High-Mountain Farming and Interacting Processes of Change in
Ladakh Over the Last 3040 Years: the Case of Hemis-Shukpa-Chan
5. Digital
Infrastructures, Practices and Social Agency on the Trail to Everest
6. The
Translocal Sherpa from Everest Mountain Range to Symbolic New York City:
Senses of Belonging and Connecting in Migration
7. Territories for Protecting
a Pristine Nature: National Parks in the Himalayas, New Places of Power and
Tension
8. Community Conserved Areas in Northeast India and their Role in
Addressing Human-Wildlife Conflict
9. An Environment of Ones Choice:
Community, Ecology and Tourism in Arunachal Pradesh
10. Living with
Landslides in Sindhupalchok: Mapping Local Knowledge and Strategies in the
Context of the Federal Decentralizing Era in Nepal
11. Commoning,
Conservation and Mapping in Garo Hills, Northeast India
12. Marrying
Glaciers: Viewing Human-Nature Relationship Through the Lens of Political
Ecology in the Western Himalayas
13. Mi Mayin (Other-Than-Humans) in the
Bhutan Lowlands and Highlands: Agency, Affect, and Annexation
14. Tracing the
Agrarian History of the Sub-Himalayan Forest Frontiers
15. Farming Systems,
Food Security and Contemporary Climate Issues in Nepal
16. Resilience in
Shangri-La
17. Himalayan Connections in Lunana and Limi: Baselines for
Climate Change Perception in Two Remote Communities in Bhutan and Nepal
18.
Climate Change Adaptation in Nepal: Livelihood, Indigenous and Traditional
Knowledge & Practices, and Climate Science
19. JaDibuti, Plants and Genetic
Resources: Conversations among Ayurveda Practitioners, Conservationists, and
Plant Scientists on Traditional Medical Knowledge and Biodiversity
Conservation in Nepal Part II: Development The Many Faces of Development: An
Introduction
20. Development, Displacement, Rehabilitation and Environment in
Northeast India
21. Silent Dis-possession of Water in Communal Irrigation at
the Foothills of the Himalayas
22. Thulo Maanche: Implications for
Development, Equality, and Democracy in Nepal
23. In-between Mobilities:
Risks and Uncertainty in Labor Migration from Nepal
24. Biogas in Nepal: A
Socio-Technical Perspective of Energy Innovation
25. Kisan Dharma: A
Worldview for Conservation of Natural Resources and Livelihood Security in
Nepal
26. Black Cardamom and Crisis in Hyper Colonial Kalimpong
27. The Assam
Bengal Railways and Socio-Spatial Changes in the Indian Himalayan Region
28.
What road? I built it myself on my way here: Roads, Wars and the
Infrastructure of Citizenship in the Indian Himalayas
29. Building Capacity,
Not Infrastructure: Lessons from Hydropower Development in Nepal
30. From Yam
to Sponge: Recent Controversies around Nepals Sovereignty, Territory and
Hydropower
31. Dam(n)ed If You Do, Dam(n)ed If You Dont: Dams, Development
and Contestations in Kinnaur, Western Himalayas
32. Rapid Urbanization and
its Consequences: A Case Study of Bharatpur, Nepal
33. Rethinking the
Himalayan Megaproject: Rainwater Harvesting and the Decentralized Alternative
to Kathmandus Urban Resource Crunch
34. Modernity, Development and Waste
Management in Northeast India
35. Anthropology of State: Images and Practices
of Inclusive Governance in Nepal
36. Geopolitics over Development in
Pakistans Karakoram Mountains
37. Gender and Sustainable Development in the
Himalayas: People, Power and Possibilities
38. Women as Neoliberal
Development Subjects: A Feminist Political Ecology Perspective on Development
in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Part III: Wellbeing Orientations: Culture,
Place and Wellbeings
39. Mental Health Help-Seeking in the Himalaya: Shifting
Ecologies of Care in Post-Earthquake Nepal
40. Sowa Rigpa and the State in
Indias Himalayan Borderlands
41. Kyidug: Pandemic, Food Systems, and Health
Ecologies in Dolpo
42. Heterogeneity of Institutionalizing Sowa Rigpa
Education in Nepal Himalaya
43. Ayurveda and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nepal
44. Putting People at the Center of Solutions: Embracing Human-Centered
Design for Developing Menstrual Health Interventions in Nepal
45. Living
Homes among the Raji and Raute of Nepal
46. The Truths of Dispossession in
the Western Himalaya
47. Global Population Politics in Nepal: From a Small,
Happy Family to a Smart Life
48. Addressing Dalit Wellbeing through
Counter Ritual
49. Of Ploughmen and Drummers: Dalit Consciousness in
Nepali-Language Literature
50. Food Intake, Activity Patterns and Nutritional
Status Among Nepali Hindu and Buddhist Sherpa Women: A Biocultural
Perspective
51. Nettle Stew and Danger Momos: Himalayan Culinary Innovation
from the Diaspora
52. Toward Holistic Well-being: Gross National Happiness
and Alternative Futures in Bhutan
53. Rethinking Museums in Places of Lived
Heritage
54. Seeking Wellbeing through Song: Dohori Singers Everyday
World-making Index
Ben Campbell is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, Durham University, UK. He traveled in 1976 into Himalayan spaces between Kashmir, Nepal and Darjeeling, starting his research career learning Tamang in Nepal in 1988. He directs an MA program on Sustainability, Energy and Development, and his book about the impact of nature conservation on Indigenous environmental knowledge and practice in a Tamang-speaking community is Living Between Juniper and Palm: Nature, Culture and Power in the Himalayas (2013).
Mary Cameron is a writer and socio-environmental activist whose research in Nepal explores human-nature engagements, Ayurvedic medicine, and gender and caste. From 1992 to 2021, she was Professor of Anthropology, and directed gender studies programs at Florida Atlantic University and Auburn University, USA. She received three Fulbright grants; alumni, leadership and teaching awards; and numerous other grants. She authored Three Fruits: Nepali Ayurvedic Doctors on Health, Nature, and Social Change (2019) and the award-winning On the Edge of the Auspicious: Gender and Caste in Nepal (1998).
Tanka B. Subba is Visiting Professor at the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, and Ombudsperson of Darjeeling Hills University. Earlier, from 2012 to 2017, he served as Vice-Chancellor of Sikkim University. He received such awards as the Homi Bhabha Fellowship (Mumbai), Dr. Panchanan Mitra Lectureship and R.P. Chanda Centenary Medal for 2015 (Asiatic Society, Kolkata), DAAD Guest professorship at the Free University of Berlin, and Baden-Wuerttemberg Fellowship at the South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University. He has authored and edited 18 books and published over 80 articles on various issues related to the Eastern Himalayas.
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