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Dam building in the Indian Himalayas threatens biodiversity

25.01.2013

Unprecedented dam building in the Indian Himalayas holds serious consequences for biodiversity and could pose a threat to human lives and livelihoods, a new study has found.

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore, the University of Delhi and the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has predicted that dam-building activity in the region will affect 90% of Himalayan valleys and result in a dam density some 62 times higher than the current global average.

The team has projected that dam-related activities will submerge and destroy about 170,000 hectares of forests and could result in the extinction of 22 flowering plants and seven vertebrate species.

Besides threatening biodiversity, the study also revealed the impact of dam-building activities on human lives and livelihoods.

“We are deeply aware of the country’s need to develop economically,” said lead researcher Professor Maharaj K Pandit. “However, there is a need to balance development and not venture into haphazard dam building without caring for biodiversity and people.”

The study was published in prestigious journal Science in January 2013 as well as other scientific journals such as Conservation Biology and PLOS ONE and cited in a Nature article in 2012.

Photo (c) Sebastian Werner / Flickr