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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author thanks Dr. P.P. Dhyani, Director
GBPNIHESD and Dr. L.M.S. Palni, Former Director
for facilities and encouragement. We also thank Dr.
R.S. Rawal, Head, BCM/ES/CC Thematic groups for
the support and help. Financial support from
Department of Science and Technology (DST-
INSPIRE IF131069) , India is grateful ly
acknowledged.
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Environment, A.P.H. Publication, New Delhi,
India, 60.
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Phytochemical and pharmacological studies of
the aerial parts of Eupatorium adenophorum.
Herba Polon, 29, 93-96.
Banerji NL. 1958. Invasion of Eupatorium
glandulosum in east Nepal. Bulletin of botanical
society, University of Saugar, 10: 14-8.
Bess HA, Haramota F H. 1971. Biological control of
Pamakani Eupatorium adenophorum in Hawaii
by a tephritid gall fly, P. utilis. Proc Hawaii
Entomol Soc, 21: 165-78.
Biswas K. 1934. Distribution of some of the common
harmful exotic weeds established in the country.
Indian Forester, 60: 861-5.
Groves RH, Panetta FD, Virtue JG. 2001. Weed Risk
Assessment. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood,
Australia, 244-249.
Holdgate MW. 1986. Summary and Conclusions:
Characteristics and Consequences of Biological
Invasions. Philosophical Transactions of the
Royle Society, London.
IUCN. 2000. IUCN guidelines for the prevention of
biodiversity loss caused by alien invasive
species. IUCN Gland.
Jansson. K. Nord 2000:13. In Weidema, I.R. (ed)
Introduced Species in the Nordic Countries.
Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen, pp
43-86.
Mandal SK, Mandal SC, Das AK, Tag H, Sur T. 1981.
Ant ipyre t ic ac t iv i ty of Eupator ium
adenophorum leaf extract. Indian J. Nat. Prod.,
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Negi GCS, Samal PK, Kuniyal JC, Kothyari BP,
Sharma RK, Dhyani PP. 2012. Impact of
climate change on the western Himalayan
mountain ecosystems: an overview. Tropical
Ecology, 53: 345-356.
Pejchar L, Mooney HA. 2009. Invasive species,
ecosystem services and human well being.
Trends Ecol Evol, 24: 497-504.
Rai LK, Sharma E. 1994. Medicinal Plants of Sikkim
Himalaya, Bishan Singh & Mahendra Pal Singh
Publication, Dehradun, India, 39.
Ramakrishnan PS. 1991. Ecology of Biological
Invasions in the Tropics. International
Scientific Publications, New Delhi.
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2000. Towards a global information system for
invasive species. Bioscience, 50: 239-44.
Saxena AK (1979). Ecology of vegetation complex of
North-Western Catchmem of river Gola, Ph.D.
thesis, Kumaun University, Nainital.
Singh NP, Singh DK, Hajra PK, Sharma BD. 2000.
Flora of India. An Introduction, BSI
Publication, Kolkata, India, 411.
Singh SP, Singh Vishal, Skutsch Margaret. 2010.
Rapid warming in the Himalayas: Ecosystem
responses and development options. Climate
and development, 2: 221-232.
Vermeij GJ. 1996. An agenda for invasion
biology. Biological Conservation, 78: 3-9.
Williamson M. 1996. Biological invasions.
Chapman and Hall, London.
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ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION, THEIR IMPACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND IMPLICATIONS ON HIMALAYAN MOUNTAIN SOCIETY
J. C. Kuniyal*
Scientist-E & Theme Head: Environmental Assessment and Management (EAM), G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Himachal Unit, Mohal-Kullu, India
*For Correspondence: jckuniyal@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Any of the commodities after use, when considered
valueless, are defined as ‘solid wastes’. It is a common
ABSTRACT
The present study on environmental pollutions, their impact on climate change and overall implications on a
society include the study carried out on visible as well as invisible pollutions, their combined impact on climate
change and their overall implications on a society. In a common individual’s language, the visible pollutions
include- solid waste pollution, while invisible includes ambient air pollution (in terms of particulate as well as
gaseous pollutants) and columnar aerosol. Aerosol includes mainly columnar which is observed in terms of
Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD). AOD is unit less, dimensionless and hence is mostly remains within 0 to 1 value
from 2006 to 2013 over Mohal (31.9°N, 77.12°E, 1154 m amsl). These all forms of pollutions, directly or
indirectly, affect positively temperature rise. After carrying out the thirteen case studies, it is found that the
biodegradable waste (BW) dominates in the hill towns as well as hill spots. While the non-biodegradable waste
(NBW) dominates on the trekking and expedition locations. Under the waste to energy initiatives, the majority
of the wastes belong to the areas of the majority of living populations. There is much possibility to go for
biocomposting as ‘recycling’ is one of the four ‘R’s principles’ of waste management. While other categories
and compositions of waste could be possible to manage after applying different sustainable options such as
‘refuse’, ‘reduce’ and ‘reuse’. Similarly, the daily average (mean ± standard deviation) AOD at 500 nm at
Mohal-Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, Ångström exponent and turbidity coefficient show 0.28 ± 0.1, 1.02 ± 0.4 and
0.16 ± 0.1, respectively. AOD from 2006-2013 at 500 nm has been found to be increasing at the rate of 0.02 per
annum due to increase in the anthropogenic activities and resultant environmental pollutions. Quoting an
example from an extreme condition of 22 March 2012 in the present study region, there was found a signi?cant
reduction in surface-reaching solar irradiance as high as 95 Wm-2 translating an atmosphere heating rate by 2.01
K day–1. Such temperature rise incidents disturb the radiative balance as well as radiative forcing and affect
positively the temperature rise and its associated farming and other activities. For example, one of the best
example of implications of such event over a society due to temperature rise may be quoted from the farmers of
the Kullu valley where these have now developed resilience and adopted vegetable cash farming in place of
apple orchard as its farming is continuously shifting to higher altitudes and latitudes due to rise in minimum and
maximum temperature rise. Keywords: Environmental pollutions, Solid waste, Ambient air quality, Aerosol optical depth, Radiative
forcing, Temperature rise, Biocomposting, Resilience and adaptation, North-Western Himalaya.
practice that after using any of the commodities,
individuals never pay any attention whether it might
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132
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133ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
have any further potential to reuse or to recycle. It is,
however, rare on the part of the users who think in an
eco-friendly way in their routine. The discarding
habits in our daily routine life cause godowns of
garbage in any of the area where human habitation
exists. Every year we individuals are creating
equivalent to a volume of Mt. Everest of garbage on
our Earth whose base is considered to be 2 km in
diameter. This human induced pollution from low to
high altitude in context to the Indian Himalayan
Region (IHR) is again a special case where this
alarming environmental problem might prevail either
in urban towns, hill spots, or trekking regions
(Kuniyal and Jain 1998; Kuniyal and Jain 1999;
Kuniyal and Jain 2000-2001; Kuniyal et al. 2003 ) or
in expedition tops (Kuniyal, 2002). Today, no region
is escaped from this continuously growing hazardous
pollution (Kuniyal 2005 a & b). When this waste
problem reaches beyond its carrying capacity in a
particular geographic area, solid wastes cause
degeneration of forests, deterioration of land,
pollution of water and air, etc. (Kuniyal et al. 2004).
As a result, as a combined impact of all these reasons,
our crop productivity, by both quantitatively and
qualitatively, declines continuously (Kuniyal 1996;
Kuniyal 2003; Kuniyal et al. 2004; Rawat et al. 2004;
Singh et al. 2004; Oinam et al. 2005). One of the most
peculiar adverse impacts of indiscriminately
throwing and dumped solid waste in any of the area
results in relatively higher emissions into the
atmosphere. There are several hazardous gases
including green house gases (GHGs) mainly methane
(CH4) which are emitted from the dumps of the
unattended heap of wastes of the towns, hill spots, and
trekking cum expedition locations. During strong
sunshine, this emission problem from open dumps of
wastes aggravates in a locality. This process helps a
rise in local temperature and affects adversely the
growth of delicate crops like vegetables and others
under the hill farming system. Further, horticultural
plants or any other vegetation type may also shift
towards higher altitudes. It’s one of the best examples
is the apple crop in the Kullu valley in Himachal
Pradesh which is continuously shifting to higher
locations. ‘Ambient air quality’ refers to any of the
forms of particulate or gaseous pollution surrounding
the immediate habitation of living organisms
representing or at the most up to the lower
troposphere. The particulate pollutants could be total
suspended particulate (TSP) matter (< 100 µ),
particulate matter below 10 µ (PM10) or particulate
matter below 2.5 µ (PM2.5) or below than ultrafine
(0.1 to 0.001 µ) or nano-particles (<100 nm). While
the gaseous pollutants might be trace gases such as
sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or
secondarily produced gases such as surface ozone
(O3, also one of the green house gases (GHGs)) or
other GHGs in the atmosphere. ‘Aerosol’ or
‘Columnar Aerosol’, representing the earth’s surface
from troposphere up to the upper limit of the
exosphere in atmosphere, is a colloidal system of
particulate (Kuniyal et al. 2005), gaseous (Kuniyal et
al. 2007) and liquid pollutants which remain under
suspension in the atmosphere (Gajananda et al. 2005;
Kuniyal et al. 2009). It is a unit less, dimensionless
and measures solar irradiance on the Earth’s surface
coming out of scattering and absorption from the
atmosphere and therefore technically is termed as
aerosol optical depth (AOD). With the ever
increasing population and resultant activities for their
economic gains or any livelihood options in many
forms result in a lot of emissions within the Earth’s
atmosphere. This atmospheric phenomenon due to
anthropogenic interferences in particular and natural
interventions, in general, interrupt the radiation
budget (IPCC, 2007; Beegum et al. 2008) and cause
the Earth’s temperature cool but atmosphere’s
temperature warm. This phenomenon fluctuates day-
to-day temperature with great magnitudes from
winter to summer. Under these conditions, our
farming systems including vegetable crops also get
adversely affected largely and sometimes do not
follow the general classification of their own
agroclimatic zones. The climate change is such a
phenomenon that has been under burning topics
(Negi et al. 2012) in the IHR. The different economic
sectors including crop or horticulture farming system
are likely to be adversely affected in future. So the
prime challenge in the way of researchers and policy
makers is how to tackle this climate change
phenomenon. Before understanding all these issues,
the first problem is to understand the temperature rise,
how it is going to rise and what could be its solutions
to cope up with the present day farming system in the
mountain perspective. So keeping in mind the over-
mentioned issues, the two important forms of
pollutions; one visible (solid waste) and other
invisible (air pollution) are important to
understanding with their status and their combined
impact on local temperature rise and radiative forcing
and their implications on a mountain society mainly
in their farming system such as apple cultivation. Experimental sites
The Himalayan states, topographically and
ecologically, are important among other states of the
country. The study of the solid waste problem,
generation, and its management options were carried
out in fourteen case studies representing hill towns,
tourist spots and trekking region from Himachal
Pradesh, while one trekking and one expedition
location from Uttarakhand state. Out of fourteen case
studies representing the different Himalayan ranges
from Himachal Pradesh as well as Uttarakhand, five
hill towns by altitude were selected. These were
namely Bilaspur (556 m), Kangra (700 m), Mandi
(760 m), Hamirpur (769 m), Chamba (928 m) and a
village Panchayat- Keylong (3100 m). While there
were four hill spots such as Kullu (1219 m), Manali
(2050 m), Tabo (3050 m), Kibber (4205), and two
trekking regions such as Chandratal (4292 m), Valley
of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib (VoF; 1830-4330 m).
However, there was only one expedition summit such
as the Pindari Valley (2300-5500 m) taken into
account from Uttarakhand. On the other hand, the
experimental sites for ‘ambient air quality’ and
‘columnar aerosols’ were selected from the Kullu
valley where apple is receding to higher altitudes.
Mohal (1154 m), close to Kullu town, and Kothi
(2474 m), close to famous Manali resort, were the
experimental locations for an in-depth study of
‘ambient air pollution’ or ‘aerosol’. While the impact
of temperature on orchard mainly apple was
observed in the Kullu valley of Himachal Pradesh.
Based on our meteorological observations, the
annual average lowest and highest temperature at
Mohal during 2004-2009 were found to be between
2.30 C to 36.60C (March 14 to June 24, 2005) and at
Kothi from -5.80C to 22.60C (December 11, 2011, to
June 20, 2005). Similarly, annual average rainfall
during observation period varied from 87.8 cm
(2008) at Mohal to 141.8 cm (2006) at Kothi. The low
altitude experimental site-Mohal comes under rain
shadow zone beginning from Aut to Katrain while the
high altitude site- Manali comes under the windward
zone from Katrain to Rohtang Pass (3978 m) within
the Kullu valley (Kuniyal et al. 2003; Kuniyal et al.
2004).
METHODOLOGY
After filling 1 foot3 tin box of the waste sample either
from households, municipal open dumps or other
community places of a town, a hill spot, trekking or
expedition location was considered here to be one
sample. These samples after manual segregation
were grouped broadly into different waste
compositions of readily biodegradable waste
(RBW), biodegradable waste (BW) and non-
biodegradable waste (NBW). By experiment, the
RBW is considered to be such waste that can
decompose under controlled temperature (25±50 C)
condition within a couple of weeks, while BW can
decompose within a couple of month. As against,
NBW cannot decompose under normal condition.
The number of samples, however, varied from one
location to other depending on a waste generation or
one season to other depending on food habits as well
as number of floating population visiting the place at
the time. Location wise, the number of samples
varied from 9 in Kibber to 236 in Mandi during the
whole of the observation period. The per capita waste
generation and total estimation were obtained based
on the number of population and consequent waste
generation consecutively for three days from a
concerned household, area or region. While some of
the ambient air quality parameters were also
PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation editionPDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition
134
PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation editionPDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition
135ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
have any further potential to reuse or to recycle. It is,
however, rare on the part of the users who think in an
eco-friendly way in their routine. The discarding
habits in our daily routine life cause godowns of
garbage in any of the area where human habitation
exists. Every year we individuals are creating
equivalent to a volume of Mt. Everest of garbage on
our Earth whose base is considered to be 2 km in
diameter. This human induced pollution from low to
high altitude in context to the Indian Himalayan
Region (IHR) is again a special case where this
alarming environmental problem might prevail either
in urban towns, hill spots, or trekking regions
(Kuniyal and Jain 1998; Kuniyal and Jain 1999;
Kuniyal and Jain 2000-2001; Kuniyal et al. 2003 ) or
in expedition tops (Kuniyal, 2002). Today, no region
is escaped from this continuously growing hazardous
pollution (Kuniyal 2005 a & b). When this waste
problem reaches beyond its carrying capacity in a
particular geographic area, solid wastes cause
degeneration of forests, deterioration of land,
pollution of water and air, etc. (Kuniyal et al. 2004).
As a result, as a combined impact of all these reasons,
our crop productivity, by both quantitatively and
qualitatively, declines continuously (Kuniyal 1996;
Kuniyal 2003; Kuniyal et al. 2004; Rawat et al. 2004;
Singh et al. 2004; Oinam et al. 2005). One of the most
peculiar adverse impacts of indiscriminately
throwing and dumped solid waste in any of the area
results in relatively higher emissions into the
atmosphere. There are several hazardous gases
including green house gases (GHGs) mainly methane
(CH4) which are emitted from the dumps of the
unattended heap of wastes of the towns, hill spots, and
trekking cum expedition locations. During strong
sunshine, this emission problem from open dumps of
wastes aggravates in a locality. This process helps a
rise in local temperature and affects adversely the
growth of delicate crops like vegetables and others
under the hill farming system. Further, horticultural
plants or any other vegetation type may also shift
towards higher altitudes. It’s one of the best examples
is the apple crop in the Kullu valley in Himachal
Pradesh which is continuously shifting to higher
locations. ‘Ambient air quality’ refers to any of the
forms of particulate or gaseous pollution surrounding
the immediate habitation of living organisms
representing or at the most up to the lower
troposphere. The particulate pollutants could be total
suspended particulate (TSP) matter (< 100 µ),
particulate matter below 10 µ (PM10) or particulate
matter below 2.5 µ (PM2.5) or below than ultrafine
(0.1 to 0.001 µ) or nano-particles (<100 nm). While
the gaseous pollutants might be trace gases such as
sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or
secondarily produced gases such as surface ozone
(O3, also one of the green house gases (GHGs)) or
other GHGs in the atmosphere. ‘Aerosol’ or
‘Columnar Aerosol’, representing the earth’s surface
from troposphere up to the upper limit of the
exosphere in atmosphere, is a colloidal system of
particulate (Kuniyal et al. 2005), gaseous (Kuniyal et
al. 2007) and liquid pollutants which remain under
suspension in the atmosphere (Gajananda et al. 2005;
Kuniyal et al. 2009). It is a unit less, dimensionless
and measures solar irradiance on the Earth’s surface
coming out of scattering and absorption from the
atmosphere and therefore technically is termed as
aerosol optical depth (AOD). With the ever
increasing population and resultant activities for their
economic gains or any livelihood options in many
forms result in a lot of emissions within the Earth’s
atmosphere. This atmospheric phenomenon due to
anthropogenic interferences in particular and natural
interventions, in general, interrupt the radiation
budget (IPCC, 2007; Beegum et al. 2008) and cause
the Earth’s temperature cool but atmosphere’s
temperature warm. This phenomenon fluctuates day-
to-day temperature with great magnitudes from
winter to summer. Under these conditions, our
farming systems including vegetable crops also get
adversely affected largely and sometimes do not
follow the general classification of their own
agroclimatic zones. The climate change is such a
phenomenon that has been under burning topics
(Negi et al. 2012) in the IHR. The different economic
sectors including crop or horticulture farming system
are likely to be adversely affected in future. So the
prime challenge in the way of researchers and policy
makers is how to tackle this climate change
phenomenon. Before understanding all these issues,
the first problem is to understand the temperature rise,
how it is going to rise and what could be its solutions
to cope up with the present day farming system in the
mountain perspective. So keeping in mind the over-
mentioned issues, the two important forms of
pollutions; one visible (solid waste) and other
invisible (air pollution) are important to
understanding with their status and their combined
impact on local temperature rise and radiative forcing
and their implications on a mountain society mainly
in their farming system such as apple cultivation. Experimental sites
The Himalayan states, topographically and
ecologically, are important among other states of the
country. The study of the solid waste problem,
generation, and its management options were carried
out in fourteen case studies representing hill towns,
tourist spots and trekking region from Himachal
Pradesh, while one trekking and one expedition
location from Uttarakhand state. Out of fourteen case
studies representing the different Himalayan ranges
from Himachal Pradesh as well as Uttarakhand, five
hill towns by altitude were selected. These were
namely Bilaspur (556 m), Kangra (700 m), Mandi
(760 m), Hamirpur (769 m), Chamba (928 m) and a
village Panchayat- Keylong (3100 m). While there
were four hill spots such as Kullu (1219 m), Manali
(2050 m), Tabo (3050 m), Kibber (4205), and two
trekking regions such as Chandratal (4292 m), Valley
of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib (VoF; 1830-4330 m).
However, there was only one expedition summit such
as the Pindari Valley (2300-5500 m) taken into
account from Uttarakhand. On the other hand, the
experimental sites for ‘ambient air quality’ and
‘columnar aerosols’ were selected from the Kullu
valley where apple is receding to higher altitudes.
Mohal (1154 m), close to Kullu town, and Kothi
(2474 m), close to famous Manali resort, were the
experimental locations for an in-depth study of
‘ambient air pollution’ or ‘aerosol’. While the impact
of temperature on orchard mainly apple was
observed in the Kullu valley of Himachal Pradesh.
Based on our meteorological observations, the
annual average lowest and highest temperature at
Mohal during 2004-2009 were found to be between
2.30 C to 36.60C (March 14 to June 24, 2005) and at
Kothi from -5.80C to 22.60C (December 11, 2011, to
June 20, 2005). Similarly, annual average rainfall
during observation period varied from 87.8 cm
(2008) at Mohal to 141.8 cm (2006) at Kothi. The low
altitude experimental site-Mohal comes under rain
shadow zone beginning from Aut to Katrain while the
high altitude site- Manali comes under the windward
zone from Katrain to Rohtang Pass (3978 m) within
the Kullu valley (Kuniyal et al. 2003; Kuniyal et al.
2004).
METHODOLOGY
After filling 1 foot3 tin box of the waste sample either
from households, municipal open dumps or other
community places of a town, a hill spot, trekking or
expedition location was considered here to be one
sample. These samples after manual segregation
were grouped broadly into different waste
compositions of readily biodegradable waste
(RBW), biodegradable waste (BW) and non-
biodegradable waste (NBW). By experiment, the
RBW is considered to be such waste that can
decompose under controlled temperature (25±50 C)
condition within a couple of weeks, while BW can
decompose within a couple of month. As against,
NBW cannot decompose under normal condition.
The number of samples, however, varied from one
location to other depending on a waste generation or
one season to other depending on food habits as well
as number of floating population visiting the place at
the time. Location wise, the number of samples
varied from 9 in Kibber to 236 in Mandi during the
whole of the observation period. The per capita waste
generation and total estimation were obtained based
on the number of population and consequent waste
generation consecutively for three days from a
concerned household, area or region. While some of
the ambient air quality parameters were also
PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation editionPDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition
134
PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation editionPDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition
135ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
monitored at Kothi (2474 m) on the way to Rohtang
Pass. While air pollution in terms of ‘ambient air
quality’ or ‘aerosol’ was monitored using different
equipments with different techniques at Mohal (1154
m). Among the ‘ambient air quality’, particulate
pollution included PM10 using Respirable Dust
Sampler (RDS Envirotech 460 NL) and PM2.5 using
Fine Particulate Sampler (FPS Envirotech 550 APM)
using gravimetric methods. While the simultaneous
measurements of gaseous pollutants including mainly
trace gases such as SO2 and NO2 were done with the
help of attached impingers with the RDS (460 NL)
using colorimetric methods following modified West
and Gaeke (1956) and Jacobs and Hochheiser (1958)
respectively. The surface O3 was monitored with the
help of online Ozone Analyzer (Thermo Fischer
Model, 49i, U.S.A.) kept in an Environmental
Observatory under Atmospheric Chemistry, Transport
and Modeling (AT-CTM) under ISRO-GBP
Programme of ISRO being executed at National Level
through Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.
O3 is based on the absorption of UV radiation by
ozone at 254 nm. Its minimum detection limit is 1.00
ppb, while precision is ±1 and flow rate is < 1 to 3
slpm. The observation of aerosol optical depth (AOD)
under Aerosol Radiative Forcing over India (ARFI)
under ISRO-GBP Programme of ISRO was carried
out using Multi-wavelength Radiometer (MWR)
which is developed by Space Physics Laboratory,
VSSC, Trivandrum. It is a passive sampler which
measures the spectral extinction of ground-reaching
direct solar flux between sunrise to sunset with a clear
sun disc all around without any clouds. The MWR
works at ten wavelengths, i.e., 380, 400, 450, 500,
600, 650, 750, 850, 935, 1025 nm, with full width, half
maximum band in the range of 6-10 nm at different
wavelengths as a function of solar zenith angle (SZA).
Based on AOD values, the instantaneous aerosol
radiative forcings were estimated over the top of the
atmosphere, surface and atmosphere following Fu and
Liou (1992; 1993). The heating rate was estimated
based on existing AOD value to represent the Kullu
Valley. The impact of such increasing temperature was
analyzed in context to an apple orchard in the Kullu
valley after concerning further the other temperature
data, changing area in apple and its production during
the four decades. The data of temperature and
precipitation were taken from 1971 to 2000 for
Naggar from Indian Agricultural Research Institute
(IARI), Katrain at Mohal. The per hectare production
(MT/ha) rate, land area (ha) and total production
(MT) of apple for district Kullu from 1981 to 2000
were collected from the Department of Horticulture,
Shimla.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Visible pollution-solid waste
The primary sources of solid waste are households,
shopkeepers, visitors, trekkers, expedition members,
etc. depending on the location and human habitation,
permanent or floating. Waste compositions are largely
governed by the nature of food habits in hill towns, hill
spots or trekking and expedition locations. As a result,
these waste compositions were also found changing in
a transect of the Himalayan locations. Waste
compositions under RBW category showed to be
highest as 65.5% for Manali hill resort and lowest as
4.6% for Chandratal trekking site, while for BW
category was 30.5% as highest for Kangra hill town
and 3.3% as lowest for the Valley of Flowers and
Hemkund Sahib (VoF) trekking region (Fig.1).
Fig.1. Waste compositions, under RBW, BW, and
NBW, manually segregated in a variety of samples in
the hill towns, hill spots and trekking cum expedition
locations in the Central as well as northwestern Indian
Himalayan Region (‘n’ indicates number of samples
(1 Foot-3) segregated in a particular study site)
However, NBW was highest as 90.1% for Chandratal
trekking site and 16.9% as lowest for Manali hill
resort. In essence, it is made clear that the
biodegradable waste (RBW+BW) dominates in the
hill towns and hill spots while non-bio degradable
waste (NBW) in the trekking and expedition regions.
Solid Waste Management (SWM) mainly depends on
four ̀ R’s principles’. The first ̀ R’ principle stands for
`refuse’ that means not to use such commodities
which are waste prone. For example, we may use jute
bags in place of polythene bags for a variety of uses
such as the purchase of vegetables from vendors. This
step indicates avoidance and minimization of waste
generation at its source of generation. The second ̀ R’
principle’ stands for ̀ reduce’ indicating minimization
of waste at its source of generation. In other words, the
whole of the self-generated wastes at its source of
origin can be segregated broadly into two
components, BW and NBW. From BW waste, one can
practice home composting, while from NBW a
variety of other uses can be put into practice. But we
need to collect it in a segregated form in accordance
with its composition at a place in a bulk. For example,
if these are ruptured polyethene bags and have lost
their potential for any further reuse practice, these
need to be collected and deposited at a place and can
be cut into a variety of small pieces to mix with the
charcoal and concrete during road construction in the
Himalayan Region. This step will not only reduce a
load of ruptured polyethene bags rather it will also
increase the life of roads which frequently face heavy
snowfall and torrent rains in the mountains. The third
`R’ principle’ stands for `reuse’. The items or
commodities need to bring under its some other use
twice, thrice and so on depending on their existing
potentiality. But here `reuse’ does not mean to use it
again exactly for which it was originally meant. For
example, if these are soft drink bottles, these can be
reused for raising climbers or money plants rather
than again for storing soft drinks in them. This step
will avoid adulteration in drinks and other eatables.
To make this practice fully functional, such wastes
need to be brought back at least up to road heads
where such collection and transportation facilities to
send back these commodities to recycling factories
are available. The fourth `R’ principle’ stands for
`recycling’. Recycling option can be practiced for
both the type of wastes, NBW and BW. For NBW, if
polyethene is ruptured and cannot further be reused
for any other purposes, these can then be collected at a
place in bulk. After then, the bulk amount can be sent
back to the local recycling units where through down
recycling discarded commodities can be converted
into plastic nodules and can be used further
manufacturing of new products. Although, its grading
quality will be one step below from its original stage
during down recycling. For example, if white plastic
bags are to recycle, these will be manufactured as
coloured plastic bags. Similarly from biodegradable
waste (RBW + BW), one can produce organic
compost, this is also termed as `recycling’. If RBW
and BW can be mixed together and can be treated as if
one category of decomposable waste, its share among
other waste types remains in the majority which can
be converted into organic compost. In this way, we
can manage the decomposable waste from 50.4% at
Tabo to 83.1% at Manali in hill towns (Fig. 2). While
the directly reusable solid waste was in majority in the
trekking regions and varied from 61.3 % in VoF to
39.6% of the total generation in the Pindari valley.
However, the waste considered suitable for
decorative uses stood to be 20.6%, 17.1% and 11.1%
at Kullu, Rewalsar, and Keylong respectively. The
non-bio degradable recyclable waste belonged to as
high as 33.1% at Chandratal, 16.6% at Pindari valley
Fig. 2. Sustainable solid waste management options
based on segregated waste
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137ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
monitored at Kothi (2474 m) on the way to Rohtang
Pass. While air pollution in terms of ‘ambient air
quality’ or ‘aerosol’ was monitored using different
equipments with different techniques at Mohal (1154
m). Among the ‘ambient air quality’, particulate
pollution included PM10 using Respirable Dust
Sampler (RDS Envirotech 460 NL) and PM2.5 using
Fine Particulate Sampler (FPS Envirotech 550 APM)
using gravimetric methods. While the simultaneous
measurements of gaseous pollutants including mainly
trace gases such as SO2 and NO2 were done with the
help of attached impingers with the RDS (460 NL)
using colorimetric methods following modified West
and Gaeke (1956) and Jacobs and Hochheiser (1958)
respectively. The surface O3 was monitored with the
help of online Ozone Analyzer (Thermo Fischer
Model, 49i, U.S.A.) kept in an Environmental
Observatory under Atmospheric Chemistry, Transport
and Modeling (AT-CTM) under ISRO-GBP
Programme of ISRO being executed at National Level
through Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.
O3 is based on the absorption of UV radiation by
ozone at 254 nm. Its minimum detection limit is 1.00
ppb, while precision is ±1 and flow rate is < 1 to 3
slpm. The observation of aerosol optical depth (AOD)
under Aerosol Radiative Forcing over India (ARFI)
under ISRO-GBP Programme of ISRO was carried
out using Multi-wavelength Radiometer (MWR)
which is developed by Space Physics Laboratory,
VSSC, Trivandrum. It is a passive sampler which
measures the spectral extinction of ground-reaching
direct solar flux between sunrise to sunset with a clear
sun disc all around without any clouds. The MWR
works at ten wavelengths, i.e., 380, 400, 450, 500,
600, 650, 750, 850, 935, 1025 nm, with full width, half
maximum band in the range of 6-10 nm at different
wavelengths as a function of solar zenith angle (SZA).
Based on AOD values, the instantaneous aerosol
radiative forcings were estimated over the top of the
atmosphere, surface and atmosphere following Fu and
Liou (1992; 1993). The heating rate was estimated
based on existing AOD value to represent the Kullu
Valley. The impact of such increasing temperature was
analyzed in context to an apple orchard in the Kullu
valley after concerning further the other temperature
data, changing area in apple and its production during
the four decades. The data of temperature and
precipitation were taken from 1971 to 2000 for
Naggar from Indian Agricultural Research Institute
(IARI), Katrain at Mohal. The per hectare production
(MT/ha) rate, land area (ha) and total production
(MT) of apple for district Kullu from 1981 to 2000
were collected from the Department of Horticulture,
Shimla.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Visible pollution-solid waste
The primary sources of solid waste are households,
shopkeepers, visitors, trekkers, expedition members,
etc. depending on the location and human habitation,
permanent or floating. Waste compositions are largely
governed by the nature of food habits in hill towns, hill
spots or trekking and expedition locations. As a result,
these waste compositions were also found changing in
a transect of the Himalayan locations. Waste
compositions under RBW category showed to be
highest as 65.5% for Manali hill resort and lowest as
4.6% for Chandratal trekking site, while for BW
category was 30.5% as highest for Kangra hill town
and 3.3% as lowest for the Valley of Flowers and
Hemkund Sahib (VoF) trekking region (Fig.1).
Fig.1. Waste compositions, under RBW, BW, and
NBW, manually segregated in a variety of samples in
the hill towns, hill spots and trekking cum expedition
locations in the Central as well as northwestern Indian
Himalayan Region (‘n’ indicates number of samples
(1 Foot-3) segregated in a particular study site)
However, NBW was highest as 90.1% for Chandratal
trekking site and 16.9% as lowest for Manali hill
resort. In essence, it is made clear that the
biodegradable waste (RBW+BW) dominates in the
hill towns and hill spots while non-bio degradable
waste (NBW) in the trekking and expedition regions.
Solid Waste Management (SWM) mainly depends on
four ̀ R’s principles’. The first ̀ R’ principle stands for
`refuse’ that means not to use such commodities
which are waste prone. For example, we may use jute
bags in place of polythene bags for a variety of uses
such as the purchase of vegetables from vendors. This
step indicates avoidance and minimization of waste
generation at its source of generation. The second ̀ R’
principle’ stands for ̀ reduce’ indicating minimization
of waste at its source of generation. In other words, the
whole of the self-generated wastes at its source of
origin can be segregated broadly into two
components, BW and NBW. From BW waste, one can
practice home composting, while from NBW a
variety of other uses can be put into practice. But we
need to collect it in a segregated form in accordance
with its composition at a place in a bulk. For example,
if these are ruptured polyethene bags and have lost
their potential for any further reuse practice, these
need to be collected and deposited at a place and can
be cut into a variety of small pieces to mix with the
charcoal and concrete during road construction in the
Himalayan Region. This step will not only reduce a
load of ruptured polyethene bags rather it will also
increase the life of roads which frequently face heavy
snowfall and torrent rains in the mountains. The third
`R’ principle’ stands for `reuse’. The items or
commodities need to bring under its some other use
twice, thrice and so on depending on their existing
potentiality. But here `reuse’ does not mean to use it
again exactly for which it was originally meant. For
example, if these are soft drink bottles, these can be
reused for raising climbers or money plants rather
than again for storing soft drinks in them. This step
will avoid adulteration in drinks and other eatables.
To make this practice fully functional, such wastes
need to be brought back at least up to road heads
where such collection and transportation facilities to
send back these commodities to recycling factories
are available. The fourth `R’ principle’ stands for
`recycling’. Recycling option can be practiced for
both the type of wastes, NBW and BW. For NBW, if
polyethene is ruptured and cannot further be reused
for any other purposes, these can then be collected at a
place in bulk. After then, the bulk amount can be sent
back to the local recycling units where through down
recycling discarded commodities can be converted
into plastic nodules and can be used further
manufacturing of new products. Although, its grading
quality will be one step below from its original stage
during down recycling. For example, if white plastic
bags are to recycle, these will be manufactured as
coloured plastic bags. Similarly from biodegradable
waste (RBW + BW), one can produce organic
compost, this is also termed as `recycling’. If RBW
and BW can be mixed together and can be treated as if
one category of decomposable waste, its share among
other waste types remains in the majority which can
be converted into organic compost. In this way, we
can manage the decomposable waste from 50.4% at
Tabo to 83.1% at Manali in hill towns (Fig. 2). While
the directly reusable solid waste was in majority in the
trekking regions and varied from 61.3 % in VoF to
39.6% of the total generation in the Pindari valley.
However, the waste considered suitable for
decorative uses stood to be 20.6%, 17.1% and 11.1%
at Kullu, Rewalsar, and Keylong respectively. The
non-bio degradable recyclable waste belonged to as
high as 33.1% at Chandratal, 16.6% at Pindari valley
Fig. 2. Sustainable solid waste management options
based on segregated waste
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137ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
and 15.4% at VoF. The medical waste, however, was
estimated to be in high quantity in hill towns which is
a serious issue since it needs to be treated separately.
If mixed with municipal or any other waste, it will
contaminate all the waste being considered suitable
for composting.
Bio-composting from solid waste
The steps for preparing organic compost or microbial
bio-composting in a nutshell, therefore, should be as
under (Kuniyal and Thakur, 2013-14): (i) There
should be a sunny site for developing a compost pit
and it should be free from water logging; (ii) The
walls of the compost pit should be below the ground
surface and need to be constructed with stone and
masonry materials rather than concrete and cement;
(iii) The size of the pit may vary from 1m×1m×1m to
3m×1m ×1m depending on waste generation and
availability of biodegradable materials; (iv) The base
of the pit needs vertical stone soling with at least one
foot height below the surface of a pit; (v) The roof of
the pit needs vertical to be covered with multi-layered
ultra-violet resistant polyethylene sheet that would
maintain the fluctuating temperature from day to
night and/or one season to other within the pit; (vi) If
the raw material is kept full of the size of a pit, it
occupies around 500 kg at maximum with a
dimension with 3m×1m ×1m. In addition, two
polyvinyl chlorides ventilated pipes for aeration are
required to put across from the base of a pit; (vii) The
RBW and BW as a raw material for composting
should be free from any other contaminated or
medical wastes; (viii) The waste materials need to be
turned up and down within an interval of 15 days up to
a period of compost preparation; (ix) The 40%
moisture content of the raw material for compost
needs to be maintained at all times. So while turning
up the raw material from the base of a pit, at least one
bucket of water needs to be sprinkled over the waste
material to maintain moisture content. This water
amount will also vary a little bit from one season to
other depending on experience gained by the users in
practicing compost; (x) If all these steps are followed
properly, the compost will become ready within 55±5
days in local summer season (April-July) and 65±5
days in local winter season (December-March); (xi)
The final product in the form of compost will be one-
third of its total material, i.e., 167 kg compost out of
500 kg raw material on fresh weight basis.
Ambient air qualitySulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide
(NO2)
Among the gaseous pollutants, the concentration of
SO2 from 2005 to 2010 was measured to be 3.2 µg m-
3 at Mohal and 3.7 µg m-3 at Kothi showing a
decreasing trend of 12.2% year-1 and 5.02% year-1
respectively. While NO2, an important precursor of
surface ozone (O3), was measured to be 3.3 µg m-3 at
Mohal and 2.7 µg m-3 at Kothi showing a decreasing
and increasing trend of -9.3% and +7.8% year-1
respectively. The major sources of SO2 in the region
could be fuelwood burning, forest fires, sulphur water
springs and vehicular influx. On the other hand,
sources of NO2 could be vehicular emissions,
biomass burning or lightening.
Surface Ozone (O3)
Surface ozone is a secondary pollutant which is
formed due to photo-oxidation in presence of ozone
precursors such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon
monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds
(VOCs), such as xylene, react in the atmosphere. The
results during autumn months also show the high
diurnal value of 51.9 ± 9.5 ppbv for O3 but the peak is
less broader than summer months (Fig. 3). On the
other hand, higher NOx values, a major O3 precursor,
were found in autumn (21.2±5.2 ppbv) followed by
winter (14.3±9.5 ppbv) and lower values in the rainy
season (5.2±5.0 ppbv). Surface ozone stands to be one
of the important green house gas (GHGs) but its
concentration compared to other GHGs (methane,
carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide) are relatively low.
However, the role of surface ozone concentration in
global climate change has always been important
which is the most hazardous to living organisms on
the earth’s surface. The surface ozone concentration
was found to be at peak in May showing 84 ± 23.9 ppb
at 1600 hr IST followed by 79 ± 20.6 ppb at 1600 hr
IST in April and 77 ± 8.3 ppb at 1600 hr IST in June.
Strong photo-oxidation process supported by
adequate temperature, solar flux and NOx encourage
the surface ozone formations.
PM10 and PM2.5
Particulate pollutants are important because these
adversely affect the human health, plant life, and local
temperature. PM10 may enter up to the trachea and
have some possibility to come out with coughing and
sneezing. However, the finer the size of particles, the
more they are supposed to be dangerous and enter up
to the innermost part of the alveoli in the lungs and
have a rare chance to come out. Among other
particulate pollution, the average concentration of
PM10 from 2003 to 2010 was measured to be 36.4 µg
m-3 at Mohal and 21 µg m-3 at Kothi showing an
increasing trend of 1.2% year-1 and 0.2% year-1
respectively. While the other finer particulate
pollution such as PM2.5 from 2006 to 2010 was
measured to be 17.4 µg m-3 at Kothi showing an
increasing trend of 24.1% year-1.
Black carbon aerosols (BCA)
Black carbon aerosols are supposed to be heat
absorbing aerosols and are considered to be melting
faster the Himalayan glaciers (IPCC, 2007). The
highest average concentration of BCA during the
observation period (July 2009 and December 2011) at
Mohal ranged from 1161±71 ng m-3 in May 2011 to
7968±374 ng m-3 in December 2009 (Fig. 4). If the
monthly pattern was observed, its concentration was
largely found highest in winter months such as
December (5625±147 ng m-3 in 2010), January
(6617±242 ng m-3 in 2009) and November
(5120±357 ng m-3 in 2009). Based on the
observation taken during three years, it is increasing
steadily in the region due to biomass as well as fossil
fuel burning. In addition, boundary layer dynamics
also promote in increasing ambient BCA
concentration through intrusion in the morning and
evening when the boundary layer remains relatively
shallower.
Fig. 3. Monthly averaged diurnal variation in surface ozone at Mohal (‘n’ indicates number of observation days
in a month)
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139ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
and 15.4% at VoF. The medical waste, however, was
estimated to be in high quantity in hill towns which is
a serious issue since it needs to be treated separately.
If mixed with municipal or any other waste, it will
contaminate all the waste being considered suitable
for composting.
Bio-composting from solid waste
The steps for preparing organic compost or microbial
bio-composting in a nutshell, therefore, should be as
under (Kuniyal and Thakur, 2013-14): (i) There
should be a sunny site for developing a compost pit
and it should be free from water logging; (ii) The
walls of the compost pit should be below the ground
surface and need to be constructed with stone and
masonry materials rather than concrete and cement;
(iii) The size of the pit may vary from 1m×1m×1m to
3m×1m ×1m depending on waste generation and
availability of biodegradable materials; (iv) The base
of the pit needs vertical stone soling with at least one
foot height below the surface of a pit; (v) The roof of
the pit needs vertical to be covered with multi-layered
ultra-violet resistant polyethylene sheet that would
maintain the fluctuating temperature from day to
night and/or one season to other within the pit; (vi) If
the raw material is kept full of the size of a pit, it
occupies around 500 kg at maximum with a
dimension with 3m×1m ×1m. In addition, two
polyvinyl chlorides ventilated pipes for aeration are
required to put across from the base of a pit; (vii) The
RBW and BW as a raw material for composting
should be free from any other contaminated or
medical wastes; (viii) The waste materials need to be
turned up and down within an interval of 15 days up to
a period of compost preparation; (ix) The 40%
moisture content of the raw material for compost
needs to be maintained at all times. So while turning
up the raw material from the base of a pit, at least one
bucket of water needs to be sprinkled over the waste
material to maintain moisture content. This water
amount will also vary a little bit from one season to
other depending on experience gained by the users in
practicing compost; (x) If all these steps are followed
properly, the compost will become ready within 55±5
days in local summer season (April-July) and 65±5
days in local winter season (December-March); (xi)
The final product in the form of compost will be one-
third of its total material, i.e., 167 kg compost out of
500 kg raw material on fresh weight basis.
Ambient air qualitySulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide
(NO2)
Among the gaseous pollutants, the concentration of
SO2 from 2005 to 2010 was measured to be 3.2 µg m-
3 at Mohal and 3.7 µg m-3 at Kothi showing a
decreasing trend of 12.2% year-1 and 5.02% year-1
respectively. While NO2, an important precursor of
surface ozone (O3), was measured to be 3.3 µg m-3 at
Mohal and 2.7 µg m-3 at Kothi showing a decreasing
and increasing trend of -9.3% and +7.8% year-1
respectively. The major sources of SO2 in the region
could be fuelwood burning, forest fires, sulphur water
springs and vehicular influx. On the other hand,
sources of NO2 could be vehicular emissions,
biomass burning or lightening.
Surface Ozone (O3)
Surface ozone is a secondary pollutant which is
formed due to photo-oxidation in presence of ozone
precursors such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon
monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds
(VOCs), such as xylene, react in the atmosphere. The
results during autumn months also show the high
diurnal value of 51.9 ± 9.5 ppbv for O3 but the peak is
less broader than summer months (Fig. 3). On the
other hand, higher NOx values, a major O3 precursor,
were found in autumn (21.2±5.2 ppbv) followed by
winter (14.3±9.5 ppbv) and lower values in the rainy
season (5.2±5.0 ppbv). Surface ozone stands to be one
of the important green house gas (GHGs) but its
concentration compared to other GHGs (methane,
carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide) are relatively low.
However, the role of surface ozone concentration in
global climate change has always been important
which is the most hazardous to living organisms on
the earth’s surface. The surface ozone concentration
was found to be at peak in May showing 84 ± 23.9 ppb
at 1600 hr IST followed by 79 ± 20.6 ppb at 1600 hr
IST in April and 77 ± 8.3 ppb at 1600 hr IST in June.
Strong photo-oxidation process supported by
adequate temperature, solar flux and NOx encourage
the surface ozone formations.
PM10 and PM2.5
Particulate pollutants are important because these
adversely affect the human health, plant life, and local
temperature. PM10 may enter up to the trachea and
have some possibility to come out with coughing and
sneezing. However, the finer the size of particles, the
more they are supposed to be dangerous and enter up
to the innermost part of the alveoli in the lungs and
have a rare chance to come out. Among other
particulate pollution, the average concentration of
PM10 from 2003 to 2010 was measured to be 36.4 µg
m-3 at Mohal and 21 µg m-3 at Kothi showing an
increasing trend of 1.2% year-1 and 0.2% year-1
respectively. While the other finer particulate
pollution such as PM2.5 from 2006 to 2010 was
measured to be 17.4 µg m-3 at Kothi showing an
increasing trend of 24.1% year-1.
Black carbon aerosols (BCA)
Black carbon aerosols are supposed to be heat
absorbing aerosols and are considered to be melting
faster the Himalayan glaciers (IPCC, 2007). The
highest average concentration of BCA during the
observation period (July 2009 and December 2011) at
Mohal ranged from 1161±71 ng m-3 in May 2011 to
7968±374 ng m-3 in December 2009 (Fig. 4). If the
monthly pattern was observed, its concentration was
largely found highest in winter months such as
December (5625±147 ng m-3 in 2010), January
(6617±242 ng m-3 in 2009) and November
(5120±357 ng m-3 in 2009). Based on the
observation taken during three years, it is increasing
steadily in the region due to biomass as well as fossil
fuel burning. In addition, boundary layer dynamics
also promote in increasing ambient BCA
concentration through intrusion in the morning and
evening when the boundary layer remains relatively
shallower.
Fig. 3. Monthly averaged diurnal variation in surface ozone at Mohal (‘n’ indicates number of observation days
in a month)
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139ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
Fig. 4. Monthly variation in BC concentration at
Mohal
Aerosol optical depth (AOD)
The AOD values at Mohal from April 2006 to 2013
showed 0.25 at 500 nm in one of its representative
wavelength (Fig. 5). While compared at 500 nm with
other locations, these were 0.03 at Manora Peak,
Nainital (Pant et al. 2006; Dumka et al. 2006) and
0.60 at Kanpur (Singh et al. 2004) indicating that our
present study site is about ten times higher polluted
compared to Manora Peak, Nainital and about half
times is less polluted than Kanpur metro city.
Considering one of the representative wavelength,
AOD at 500 nm is observed as low as 0.22 in 2007 and
as high as 0.30 in 2011 indicating an increasing trend
of 3.5% year-1 since 2007.
Fig. 5. Aerosol optical depth (2006-2013) at Mohal
Aerosol and temperature rise
According to varying columnar aerosols at three
levels of the atmosphere, radiative forcing at the top
of the atmosphere was -33.2 W m-2, at the Earth’s
surface -80.2 W m-2 and at the atmosphere 47 W m-2
when AOD was 0.57 at 500 nm on 10 December 2011
(Fu and Liou, 1992; 1993) (Fig. 6). The heating rate
due to AOD is estimated to be from 0.30 kelvin (K)
day-1 to 1.20 K day-1 in May and September 2011,
respectively.
Fig. 6. Aerosol Radiative Forcing at Mohal
Implications on mountain society
The temperature rise due to anthropogenic emissions
will result in shifting of age-old crops, vegetables,
orchards, medicinal herbs and vegetation to higher
altitudes and may also adversely affect their
productivity. For example, apple crop is shifting from
lower to a higher altitude in the Kullu valley. In the
1960s, it was grown in Bajaura region (1000 m)
which is now shifted up to Katrain (2000 m), a mid
part of the Kullu Valley (Fig. 7). Looking at climatic
impacts on apple productivity in the Kullu Valley,
during good apple cropping years; the average
maximum temperature stood to be 14.35×1.35 °C
from November to April. This was relatively lower
than the maximum temperature (16.49×1.49 °C)
during poor category of apple cropping years of the
similar months. December and March were the
months when temperature differences of nearly 3ºC
were recorded which was much pronounced. The
other important thing during the years of the poor
category of apple cropping, rainfall (6.74×1.91 cm)
and snowfall (9.83×7.38 cm) were also noticed very
poor. As against, rainfall (10.29×3.06 cm) and
snowfall (19.33×6.96 cm) were higher than that of the
same months during good apple cropping years.
Weather conditions starting from initiation of chilling
to crop maturity determine the productivity of apple.
For a better yield of apple, nearly 1200 chilling hours
are required below 7ºC to break the rest of the period
(Kanwar, 1988).
On account of anthropogenic impacts and consequent
emissions, the temperature is rising slowly. It is
certain that if the temperature continues to rise at its
present rate, the required chilling hours to apple
cultivars in the present study could not be easily met
and apple production may suffer a lot in the valley
(Fig. 8). Under these circumstances, the mountain
people have been attempting to adapt the system
Fig. 7. Shifting Apple crop towards the upper Kullu valley in Himachal Pradesh
coming out of climate change implications. The
farmers here have replaced vegetable cash cropping in
place of apple which requires further scientific skill in
making this system more resilient to combat the
climate change. The scientific skill is either to develop
such a breed to be resistant to climatic change or
building the skill of the farmers to adapt easily with
some sustainable options such as vegetables and
others in the present case.
Recommendations and conclusions
(i) Solid waste
The microbial bio compost technique (turning
biodegradable waste into compost) would largely
support the organic farming systems through
providing nutrients especially the traditional crops,
vegetables, apple orchard, etc. The unattended waste
dumps here and there will be used as raw material for
compost which will develop a feeling of the clean
environment; (ii) Waste, a cause of pollution, if
tackled sensibly and scientifically with the application
of energy driven technology (as suggested above),
there will not be wasted but everywhere there would
be resources; (iii) NBW needs to be brought back from
the trekking and expedition locations and needs to be
collected at a place for reuse and recycling. Reuse will
enable the users to realize their potential, while
through recycling new products will become possible
to manufacture; (iv) Managing indiscriminate waste
would reduce the emission amount especially CH4
Fig. 8. Pattern of total production (MT) and
production rate (MT/ha) of apple in the Kullu valley
(Source: Department of Horticulture, Kullu)
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141ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
Fig. 4. Monthly variation in BC concentration at
Mohal
Aerosol optical depth (AOD)
The AOD values at Mohal from April 2006 to 2013
showed 0.25 at 500 nm in one of its representative
wavelength (Fig. 5). While compared at 500 nm with
other locations, these were 0.03 at Manora Peak,
Nainital (Pant et al. 2006; Dumka et al. 2006) and
0.60 at Kanpur (Singh et al. 2004) indicating that our
present study site is about ten times higher polluted
compared to Manora Peak, Nainital and about half
times is less polluted than Kanpur metro city.
Considering one of the representative wavelength,
AOD at 500 nm is observed as low as 0.22 in 2007 and
as high as 0.30 in 2011 indicating an increasing trend
of 3.5% year-1 since 2007.
Fig. 5. Aerosol optical depth (2006-2013) at Mohal
Aerosol and temperature rise
According to varying columnar aerosols at three
levels of the atmosphere, radiative forcing at the top
of the atmosphere was -33.2 W m-2, at the Earth’s
surface -80.2 W m-2 and at the atmosphere 47 W m-2
when AOD was 0.57 at 500 nm on 10 December 2011
(Fu and Liou, 1992; 1993) (Fig. 6). The heating rate
due to AOD is estimated to be from 0.30 kelvin (K)
day-1 to 1.20 K day-1 in May and September 2011,
respectively.
Fig. 6. Aerosol Radiative Forcing at Mohal
Implications on mountain society
The temperature rise due to anthropogenic emissions
will result in shifting of age-old crops, vegetables,
orchards, medicinal herbs and vegetation to higher
altitudes and may also adversely affect their
productivity. For example, apple crop is shifting from
lower to a higher altitude in the Kullu valley. In the
1960s, it was grown in Bajaura region (1000 m)
which is now shifted up to Katrain (2000 m), a mid
part of the Kullu Valley (Fig. 7). Looking at climatic
impacts on apple productivity in the Kullu Valley,
during good apple cropping years; the average
maximum temperature stood to be 14.35×1.35 °C
from November to April. This was relatively lower
than the maximum temperature (16.49×1.49 °C)
during poor category of apple cropping years of the
similar months. December and March were the
months when temperature differences of nearly 3ºC
were recorded which was much pronounced. The
other important thing during the years of the poor
category of apple cropping, rainfall (6.74×1.91 cm)
and snowfall (9.83×7.38 cm) were also noticed very
poor. As against, rainfall (10.29×3.06 cm) and
snowfall (19.33×6.96 cm) were higher than that of the
same months during good apple cropping years.
Weather conditions starting from initiation of chilling
to crop maturity determine the productivity of apple.
For a better yield of apple, nearly 1200 chilling hours
are required below 7ºC to break the rest of the period
(Kanwar, 1988).
On account of anthropogenic impacts and consequent
emissions, the temperature is rising slowly. It is
certain that if the temperature continues to rise at its
present rate, the required chilling hours to apple
cultivars in the present study could not be easily met
and apple production may suffer a lot in the valley
(Fig. 8). Under these circumstances, the mountain
people have been attempting to adapt the system
Fig. 7. Shifting Apple crop towards the upper Kullu valley in Himachal Pradesh
coming out of climate change implications. The
farmers here have replaced vegetable cash cropping in
place of apple which requires further scientific skill in
making this system more resilient to combat the
climate change. The scientific skill is either to develop
such a breed to be resistant to climatic change or
building the skill of the farmers to adapt easily with
some sustainable options such as vegetables and
others in the present case.
Recommendations and conclusions
(i) Solid waste
The microbial bio compost technique (turning
biodegradable waste into compost) would largely
support the organic farming systems through
providing nutrients especially the traditional crops,
vegetables, apple orchard, etc. The unattended waste
dumps here and there will be used as raw material for
compost which will develop a feeling of the clean
environment; (ii) Waste, a cause of pollution, if
tackled sensibly and scientifically with the application
of energy driven technology (as suggested above),
there will not be wasted but everywhere there would
be resources; (iii) NBW needs to be brought back from
the trekking and expedition locations and needs to be
collected at a place for reuse and recycling. Reuse will
enable the users to realize their potential, while
through recycling new products will become possible
to manufacture; (iv) Managing indiscriminate waste
would reduce the emission amount especially CH4
Fig. 8. Pattern of total production (MT) and
production rate (MT/ha) of apple in the Kullu valley
(Source: Department of Horticulture, Kullu)
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141ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
into our atmosphere thereby reducing and regulating
local temperature rise; (v) Further, the adequate
amount of nutrients to crops, vegetables and orchards
would again make them resistant and adaptive to ever
changing climatic conditions.
(ii) Ambient air pollution’ or aerosol
The first and foremost task of every concerned
stakeholder within a particular agro-ecosystem is to
minimize the emission of aerosols into the
atmosphere at its source of generation. By way of a
variety of anthropogenic activities, our emissions are
continuously increasing. This results in a rise in local
temperature. The low temperature demanding
vegetables ultimately recede to the higher locations.
This is also evident from the cases of some of the
horticultural plants (apple) and other vegetation
(Pinus roxburghii). The day is not far behind when
such crop, vegetable, and horticultural species would
be diminishing from the age-old farming systems of
low altitude agro-climatic zone of the Indian
Himalayan Region. The immediate need is to bring
under control the local temperature by controlling the
respective sources of different species of aerosols
supported by the green cover of a native variety of
species. The prime solution lies at its source of origin.
If forest fire is one of the major reasons for higher
BCA, prohibiting such human induced activity from
our daily life would help much to control our daily
emissions. This step will bring under control
temperature rise and increase the farmers’ resilience
and adaptive capacity to grow traditional crops,
vegetables and horticultural crops due to global
climate change.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is thankful to the Director, G.B. Pant
National Institute of Himalayan Environment and
Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora,
Uttarakhand for providing facilities in Himachal Unit
of the Institute which could make the present study
possible.
REFERENCES
Beegum, S.N., Moorthy, K.K., Nair, V.S., Babu, S.S., Satheesh, S.K., Vinoj, V., Reddy, R.R., Gopal, K.R., Badrinath, K.V.S., Niranjan, K., Pandey, S.K., Behera, M., Jeyaram, A., Bhuyan, P.K., Gogoi, M.M., Singh, S., Pant, P., Dumka, U.C., Kant, Y., Kuniyal, J.C. and Singh, D. (2008) Characteristics of spectral aerosol optical depths over India during ICARB, Journal of Earth System Science 117(S1): 303-313.
Dumka, U.C., Satheesh, S.K., Pant, P., Hegde, P. and Moorthy, K.K. (2006) Surface changes in solar irradiance due to aerosols over Central Himalaya, G e o p h y s . R e s . L e t t . , 3 3 , L 2 0 8 0 9 , doi:10.1029/2006GL027814.
Fu, Q. and Liou, K.N. (1992) On the correlated k-distribution method for radiative transfer in nonhomogenous atmospheres, J. Atmos. Sci. 49, 2139-2156.
Fu, Q. and Liou, K.N. (1993) Parameterization of the radiative properties of cirrus clouds, J. Atmos. Sci. 50, 2008-2025.
Gajananda, Kh., Kuniyal J.C., Monin G.A., Rao P.S.P., Safai P.D., Tiwari S. and Ali K. (2005) Trend of atmospheric aerosols over the north western Himalayan region, India, Atmospheric Environment 39 (27): 4817-4825.
IPCC (2007) Summary for policymakers. In: Parry, M.L., Canziani, O.F., Palutikof, J.P., van der Linden, P.J. and Hanson, C.E. (eds.) Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, pp. 722.
Jacobs, M.B. and Hochheiser, S. (1958) Continuous sampling and ultramicro determination of nitrogen dioxide in air, Analytical Chemistry, 30(3): 426–428.
Kanwar, S.M. (1988) Apple Production Technology and Economics, Tata McGraw-Hills Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi.
Kuniyal, J.C. (1996) Regional imbalances in sustainable agricultural development in U.P. Himalaya: A geographical view, Journal of Rural Development 15(4): 543-554.
Kuniyal, J.C. (2002) Mountain expeditions: minimizing the impact, Environmental Impact Assessment Review 22(6): 561-581.
Kuniyal, J.C. (2003) Regional imbalances and sustainable crop farming in the Uttaranchal Himalaya, India, Ecological Economics 46(3): 419-435.
Kuniyal, J.C. (2005a) Solid waste management in the Himalayan trails and expedition summit, Journal of Sustainable Tourism 13(4): 391-410.
Kuniyal, J.C. (2005b) Solid waste management techniques for the waste generated and brought down from campsites in the hill spots, trails and expedition tops, Waste Management and Research 23(3): 182-198.
Kuniyal, J.C. and Jain, A.P. (1999) Public involvements in environmental assessment of solid waste management in UP Himalayan tourist treks, India, Environmental & Waste Management 2(4): 279-291.
Kuniyal, J.C. and Jain, A.P. (2000-2001) Tourist's involvement in solid waste management in Himalayan trails: a case study in and around valley of flowers, India, Journal of Environmental Systems 28(2): 91115.
Kuniyal, J.C., Jain, A. P. and Shannigrahi, A.S. (2003) Environmental impacts of tourism in Kullu-Manali complex in north western Himalaya, India. Part 1: The adverse impacts, International Journal of Fieldwork Studies 1(1): 47-66.
Kuniyal, J.C., Jain, A.P. and Shannigrahi, A.S. (1998) Public involvement in solid waste management in Himalayan trails in and around the Valley of Flowers, India, Resources, Conservation and Recycling 24: 299-322.
Kuniyal, J.C., Jain, A.P. and Shannigrahi, A.S. (2003) Solid waste management in and Around the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib, Waste Management 23: 807-816.
Kuniyal, J.C., Rao, P.S.P., Momin, G.A., Safai, P.D., Tiwari, S. and Ali, K. (2007) Trace gases behaviour in sensitive areas of the northwestern Himalaya: A case study of Kullu-Manali tourist complex, India, Journal of Radio & Space Physics 36(3): 197-203.
Kuniyal, J.C., Thakur, A., Thakur, H.K., Sharma S., Pant, P., Rawat, P.S. and Moorthy, K.K. (2009) Aerosol optical depths at Mohal-Kullu in the northwestern Indian Himalyan high altitude station during ICARB, Journal of Earth System Science 118 (1): 41-48.
Kuniyal, J.C., Vishvakarma, S.C.R and Singh, G.S. (2004) Changing crop biodiversity and resource use efficiency of traditional versus introduced crops in the cold desert of the North-western Indian Himalaya: a case of Lahaul valley, Biodiversity and Conservation 13(7): 1271-1304.
Kuniyal, J.C., Vishvakarma, S.C.R., Badola, H.K. and Jain, A.P. (2004) Tourism in Kullu Valley: An Environmental Assessment, Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehradun, pp.1210.
Kuniyal, J.C., Momin, G.A., Rao, P.S.P., Safai, P.D., Tiwari, S., Ali K. and Gajanada Kh. (2005) Aerosols behavior in sensitive areas of northwestern Himalaya: a case study of Kullu-Manali tourist complex, India, Journal of Radio & Space Physics 34(5): 332-340.
Kuniyal, J.C. and Thakur, H. K. (2013-14) User Manual on Microbial Bio-composting Technique for Solid Waste Management, GBPIHED, pp.1-34.
Negi, G.C.S., Samal, P.K., Kuniyal, J.C., Kothyari, B.P., Sharma, R.K. and Dhyani, P.P. (2012) Impact of climate change on the western Himalayan mountain ecosystems: An overview, Tropical Ecology 53 (3): 345-356.
Oinam, S.S., Rawat, Y.S., Khoiyangbam, R.S., Gajananda, Kh., Kuniyal, J.C. and Vishvakarma, S. C. R. (2005) Land use and land cover changes in Jahlma watershed of the Lahaul valley, cold desert region of the northwestern Himalaya, India, Journal of Mountain Science 2(2) 129-136.
Pant, P., Hegde, P., Dumka, U.C., Sagar, R., Satheesh, S.K., Moorthy, K.K., Saha, A., Srivastava, M.K. (2006) Aerosol Characteristics at a High Altitude Location in Central Himalayas: Optical Properties and Radiative Forcing, Journal of Geophysical R e s e a rc h 111 : 9 , D 1 7 2 0 6 d o i : 1 0 . 1 0 2 9 / 2005JD006768.
Rawat, Y.S., Oinam, S.S., Vishvakarma, S.C.R. and Kuniyal, J.C. (2004) Saussurea costus (Falc.) Lips.: A promising medicinal crop under cold desert agroecosystem in north western Himalaya, Indian Journal of Forestry 27(3): 297-303.
Singh, G.S., Kuniyal, J.C. and Vishvakarma, S.C.R. (2004) Agro-biodiversity of cold desert of Lahaul valley: present scenario, Everyman's Science 38(6): 331-334.
Singh, R.P., Dey, S., Tripathi, S.N., Tare, V., and Holben, B. (2004) Variability of aerosol parameters over Kanpur, northern India, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D23206, doi:10.1029/2004JD004966.
West, P.W., and Gaeke, G.C. (1956) Fixation of Sulphur Dioxide as disulfitomercurate (II) and subsequent colorimetric estimation, Analytical Chemistry, 28(12), 1816–1819.
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142
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143ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
into our atmosphere thereby reducing and regulating
local temperature rise; (v) Further, the adequate
amount of nutrients to crops, vegetables and orchards
would again make them resistant and adaptive to ever
changing climatic conditions.
(ii) Ambient air pollution’ or aerosol
The first and foremost task of every concerned
stakeholder within a particular agro-ecosystem is to
minimize the emission of aerosols into the
atmosphere at its source of generation. By way of a
variety of anthropogenic activities, our emissions are
continuously increasing. This results in a rise in local
temperature. The low temperature demanding
vegetables ultimately recede to the higher locations.
This is also evident from the cases of some of the
horticultural plants (apple) and other vegetation
(Pinus roxburghii). The day is not far behind when
such crop, vegetable, and horticultural species would
be diminishing from the age-old farming systems of
low altitude agro-climatic zone of the Indian
Himalayan Region. The immediate need is to bring
under control the local temperature by controlling the
respective sources of different species of aerosols
supported by the green cover of a native variety of
species. The prime solution lies at its source of origin.
If forest fire is one of the major reasons for higher
BCA, prohibiting such human induced activity from
our daily life would help much to control our daily
emissions. This step will bring under control
temperature rise and increase the farmers’ resilience
and adaptive capacity to grow traditional crops,
vegetables and horticultural crops due to global
climate change.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is thankful to the Director, G.B. Pant
National Institute of Himalayan Environment and
Sustainable Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora,
Uttarakhand for providing facilities in Himachal Unit
of the Institute which could make the present study
possible.
REFERENCES
Beegum, S.N., Moorthy, K.K., Nair, V.S., Babu, S.S., Satheesh, S.K., Vinoj, V., Reddy, R.R., Gopal, K.R., Badrinath, K.V.S., Niranjan, K., Pandey, S.K., Behera, M., Jeyaram, A., Bhuyan, P.K., Gogoi, M.M., Singh, S., Pant, P., Dumka, U.C., Kant, Y., Kuniyal, J.C. and Singh, D. (2008) Characteristics of spectral aerosol optical depths over India during ICARB, Journal of Earth System Science 117(S1): 303-313.
Dumka, U.C., Satheesh, S.K., Pant, P., Hegde, P. and Moorthy, K.K. (2006) Surface changes in solar irradiance due to aerosols over Central Himalaya, G e o p h y s . R e s . L e t t . , 3 3 , L 2 0 8 0 9 , doi:10.1029/2006GL027814.
Fu, Q. and Liou, K.N. (1992) On the correlated k-distribution method for radiative transfer in nonhomogenous atmospheres, J. Atmos. Sci. 49, 2139-2156.
Fu, Q. and Liou, K.N. (1993) Parameterization of the radiative properties of cirrus clouds, J. Atmos. Sci. 50, 2008-2025.
Gajananda, Kh., Kuniyal J.C., Monin G.A., Rao P.S.P., Safai P.D., Tiwari S. and Ali K. (2005) Trend of atmospheric aerosols over the north western Himalayan region, India, Atmospheric Environment 39 (27): 4817-4825.
IPCC (2007) Summary for policymakers. In: Parry, M.L., Canziani, O.F., Palutikof, J.P., van der Linden, P.J. and Hanson, C.E. (eds.) Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, pp. 722.
Jacobs, M.B. and Hochheiser, S. (1958) Continuous sampling and ultramicro determination of nitrogen dioxide in air, Analytical Chemistry, 30(3): 426–428.
Kanwar, S.M. (1988) Apple Production Technology and Economics, Tata McGraw-Hills Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi.
Kuniyal, J.C. (1996) Regional imbalances in sustainable agricultural development in U.P. Himalaya: A geographical view, Journal of Rural Development 15(4): 543-554.
Kuniyal, J.C. (2002) Mountain expeditions: minimizing the impact, Environmental Impact Assessment Review 22(6): 561-581.
Kuniyal, J.C. (2003) Regional imbalances and sustainable crop farming in the Uttaranchal Himalaya, India, Ecological Economics 46(3): 419-435.
Kuniyal, J.C. (2005a) Solid waste management in the Himalayan trails and expedition summit, Journal of Sustainable Tourism 13(4): 391-410.
Kuniyal, J.C. (2005b) Solid waste management techniques for the waste generated and brought down from campsites in the hill spots, trails and expedition tops, Waste Management and Research 23(3): 182-198.
Kuniyal, J.C. and Jain, A.P. (1999) Public involvements in environmental assessment of solid waste management in UP Himalayan tourist treks, India, Environmental & Waste Management 2(4): 279-291.
Kuniyal, J.C. and Jain, A.P. (2000-2001) Tourist's involvement in solid waste management in Himalayan trails: a case study in and around valley of flowers, India, Journal of Environmental Systems 28(2): 91115.
Kuniyal, J.C., Jain, A. P. and Shannigrahi, A.S. (2003) Environmental impacts of tourism in Kullu-Manali complex in north western Himalaya, India. Part 1: The adverse impacts, International Journal of Fieldwork Studies 1(1): 47-66.
Kuniyal, J.C., Jain, A.P. and Shannigrahi, A.S. (1998) Public involvement in solid waste management in Himalayan trails in and around the Valley of Flowers, India, Resources, Conservation and Recycling 24: 299-322.
Kuniyal, J.C., Jain, A.P. and Shannigrahi, A.S. (2003) Solid waste management in and Around the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib, Waste Management 23: 807-816.
Kuniyal, J.C., Rao, P.S.P., Momin, G.A., Safai, P.D., Tiwari, S. and Ali, K. (2007) Trace gases behaviour in sensitive areas of the northwestern Himalaya: A case study of Kullu-Manali tourist complex, India, Journal of Radio & Space Physics 36(3): 197-203.
Kuniyal, J.C., Thakur, A., Thakur, H.K., Sharma S., Pant, P., Rawat, P.S. and Moorthy, K.K. (2009) Aerosol optical depths at Mohal-Kullu in the northwestern Indian Himalyan high altitude station during ICARB, Journal of Earth System Science 118 (1): 41-48.
Kuniyal, J.C., Vishvakarma, S.C.R and Singh, G.S. (2004) Changing crop biodiversity and resource use efficiency of traditional versus introduced crops in the cold desert of the North-western Indian Himalaya: a case of Lahaul valley, Biodiversity and Conservation 13(7): 1271-1304.
Kuniyal, J.C., Vishvakarma, S.C.R., Badola, H.K. and Jain, A.P. (2004) Tourism in Kullu Valley: An Environmental Assessment, Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehradun, pp.1210.
Kuniyal, J.C., Momin, G.A., Rao, P.S.P., Safai, P.D., Tiwari, S., Ali K. and Gajanada Kh. (2005) Aerosols behavior in sensitive areas of northwestern Himalaya: a case study of Kullu-Manali tourist complex, India, Journal of Radio & Space Physics 34(5): 332-340.
Kuniyal, J.C. and Thakur, H. K. (2013-14) User Manual on Microbial Bio-composting Technique for Solid Waste Management, GBPIHED, pp.1-34.
Negi, G.C.S., Samal, P.K., Kuniyal, J.C., Kothyari, B.P., Sharma, R.K. and Dhyani, P.P. (2012) Impact of climate change on the western Himalayan mountain ecosystems: An overview, Tropical Ecology 53 (3): 345-356.
Oinam, S.S., Rawat, Y.S., Khoiyangbam, R.S., Gajananda, Kh., Kuniyal, J.C. and Vishvakarma, S. C. R. (2005) Land use and land cover changes in Jahlma watershed of the Lahaul valley, cold desert region of the northwestern Himalaya, India, Journal of Mountain Science 2(2) 129-136.
Pant, P., Hegde, P., Dumka, U.C., Sagar, R., Satheesh, S.K., Moorthy, K.K., Saha, A., Srivastava, M.K. (2006) Aerosol Characteristics at a High Altitude Location in Central Himalayas: Optical Properties and Radiative Forcing, Journal of Geophysical R e s e a rc h 111 : 9 , D 1 7 2 0 6 d o i : 1 0 . 1 0 2 9 / 2005JD006768.
Rawat, Y.S., Oinam, S.S., Vishvakarma, S.C.R. and Kuniyal, J.C. (2004) Saussurea costus (Falc.) Lips.: A promising medicinal crop under cold desert agroecosystem in north western Himalaya, Indian Journal of Forestry 27(3): 297-303.
Singh, G.S., Kuniyal, J.C. and Vishvakarma, S.C.R. (2004) Agro-biodiversity of cold desert of Lahaul valley: present scenario, Everyman's Science 38(6): 331-334.
Singh, R.P., Dey, S., Tripathi, S.N., Tare, V., and Holben, B. (2004) Variability of aerosol parameters over Kanpur, northern India, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D23206, doi:10.1029/2004JD004966.
West, P.W., and Gaeke, G.C. (1956) Fixation of Sulphur Dioxide as disulfitomercurate (II) and subsequent colorimetric estimation, Analytical Chemistry, 28(12), 1816–1819.
PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation editionPDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition
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PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation editionPDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition
143ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology, Vol 24, 2016ENVIS Centre on Himalayan Ecology
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