Short description:

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.

Long description:

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 region?s 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 people?s creative ways for understanding, adapting, and seeking wellbeing in environmental relations and development possibilities.

"The volume is a precious guide for navigating in the complexities of human-environment relationships within the Himalayan range, during the Anthropocene era. It brings together contributions from a remarkable group of scholars to explore social, political, cultural and historical ecologies in light of the recent changes that define this era, particularly with regard to migration, water and forest resources and wellbeing.?

Marie Lecomte-Tilouine, CNRS Senior researcher, LAS, Coll?ge de France, Paris

"An excellent regional handbook by a global community of scholars, sharing deep knowledge and deep personal engagement with the Himalayas. The stories told inhabit the spaces between environmental catastrophe narratives and Shangri-la. The approach and frames of reference are innovative, compelling and highly recommended."

Edward Simpson, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University, UK

"This handbook is poised to provide new challenges to thinking about interactions between environment, development and wellbeing in an amazingly diverse region. The nearly sixty chapters cover a rich range of topics, focusing on complex transitions rather than simplified unilineal change. They include discussion of increasing forest cover in Nepal and the complex changes involved. They also include rethinking of social and environmental transitions such as increasing urbanisation and transition to reduced family size. The book is deeply interdisciplinary, covers much of the geographic and cultural diversity of the region and defaults in cultural relativism (as one of the editors writes). Anyone with a passion for the Himalayas will find this a challenging and exciting book."

Robert Fisher, Tropical Forests and People Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia; School of Geosciences, University of Sydney

"This collection displays the richness and diversity of scholarship on the Himalayas. It could not be more timely, as climate crisis, economic speculation, and new political alignments force Himalayan peoples to reckon with unprecedented change. Critical scholars from across the social sciences and humanities will surely find it essential reading."

Sarah Besky, Professor of the Anthropology of Work, ILR School, and Director, South Asia Program, Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell University

"This Handbook is a collection of cutting-edge studies exploring how the penetration of the 21st century economy and technology have profoundly disrupted human-environmental relations, the theory and practice of development, and the well-being of the region?s people. A highlight of the book is the ways the authors present the ambiguity or these changes and the range of possible futures. In addition, that half the authors/co-authors of the collection are from the Himalayan region enriches the analyses and expands the interpretations of the topics of the book."

John Metz, Associate Professor, North Kentucky University, USA

"The editors are to be congratulated on bringing together a stellar array of contributions. Every specialist of the region will want to have this collection of vital case studies on their shelves. More importantly, every NGO and government office responsible for, or working in, the region should have it to hand as an indispensable reminder of the sheer diversity of Himalayan people?s experiences of the environment, the state, culture, and wellbeing in a time of rapid climatic change."

David N. Gellner FBA, editor of Borderland Lives in Northern South Asia

"This is an exceptionally valuable collection of essays that sheds critical light on the complex and important reality of the Himalaya region. The interdisciplinary contributions to this handbook effectively challenge reductionist, sensationalist, and orientalist perspectives on the mountains. By focusing on the experiences of people whose lives are entangled in the environment, and who are implicated in development projects from the ground up, this collection provides deep insights on how to look at, but also beyond, crises and catastrophes. To look beyond is to better understand the nature of wellbeing in a place that well reflects the intimate challenges of living in the Anthropocene."

Joseph Alter, Professor of Anthropology and Director, Asian Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh. Author of Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy

"There is a demographic churning underway across the Himalaya. Variegated lifestyles are being lost even as glaciers retreat, permafrost lets go, groundwater is depleted, hill terraces go fallow, and cultures see a breathless, unprecedented transformation. Breakneck ecological change feeds human bewilderment and distress. Only diverse disciplines and voices can do justice to all that is happening across the 2500 km of the Himalayan arc, which is why this volume is valuable. It helps the world understand the challenges facing societies and ecologies of our mountains."

Kanak M. Dixit, journalist, activist, founding editor of Himal Southasian

"An important resource for thinking about constellations of struggle and hope across the entire Himalayan region, the Handbook invites readers to envision environmental and social transformations as they are known, seen, and felt from a multitude of locations. This collection usefully resists reducing the historical complexity of places and problems into singular stories of crisis and its causes."

Stacy Leigh Pigg, anthropology professor, Simon Fraser University

"Drawing on the deep scholarly engagement of contributors across the Himalayan region, this first-ever Handbook  of its kind presents fresh insights into environmental change, human resilience, and socio-ecological transformation happening in the region. Embracing post-colonial sensibility and celebrating intellectual diversity, it provides locally grounded and rich accounts of the complex dynamics between environments, communities, and development in one of Earth's most critical zones. The volume offers critical insights into the possibilities for adaptation, transformation, and human well-being in times of rapid socio-environmental change across the region."

Hemant Ojha, Institute for Study and Development Worldwide (IFSD), Australia, and author of 'Climate Risks to Urban Water Security in the Asia-Pacific Region: Emerging Responses and Lessons'

Table of Contents:

Dedication  List of figures  List of tables  Preface  Acknowledgements  List of contributors  Acronyms and abbreviations  Handbook Introduction  Part One: 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 30?40 Years: the Case of Hemis-Shukpa-Chan  5. Digital Infrastructures, Practices and Social Agency on the Trail to Everest  6. The Translocal Sherpa from Iconic Everest to Symbolic New York: 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 One?s 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 Decentralising 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, Genetic Resources: Conversations among Ayurveda Practitioners, Conservationists, and Plant Scientists on Traditional Medical Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation in Nepal  Part Two: Developments  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 Hypercolonial 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 Nepal?s Sovereignty, Territory and Hydropower  31. Dam(n)ed If You Do, Dam(n)ed If You Don?t: 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 Kathmandu?s 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 Pakistan?s 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 Three: Wellbeings  Introduction: Culture, Place, and Wellbeings  39. Revisiting Mental Health Help-Seeking in the Himalaya: Shifting Ecologies of Care in Post-Earthquake Nepal  40. Sowa Rigpa and the State in India?s Himalayan Borderlands  41. Precarity and Wellbeing: 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 Thinking and Approaches 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