The high-altitude regions of Himalaya are among the best indicators of climate change yet noticeable for the lack of climate monitoring stations. However, they support ethnic communities whose livelihood activities are climate driven. Consequently, these communities are keen observers of the same and documenting their perception on changing climate is now an important area of global research. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the prime objective of documenting the climate change perception of Bhangalis—a resident community of western Himalaya, and analyzing variation in their perceptions in relation to age and gender. For this, respondent surveys (household, n = 430; individual interviews, n = 240) were carried out and the collected data were subjected to statistical analyses. The study also validated the perception of Bhangalis using the available weather data (1974–2017) through the Mann-Kendall test. The results reveal that Bhangalis perceived 11 indicators of changing climate, of which decrease in snowfall was the most prominent (reported by ~ 97% of the respondents). The perceptions varied between the two genders with males having significantly higher proportion of responses for all the 11 indicators. Similarly, differences in perception among the age groups were also observed, elderly people reported higher proportion of climate change indicators as compared to respondents of lower age. Notably, patterns of temperature and rainfall perceptions by the Bhangalis agreed with the trends of meteorological data. This highlights the importance of the study in documenting knowledge of ethnic communities especially from areas that lack monitoring stations. It argues for involving them in climate change programs.

中文翻译：

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喜马拉雅西部少数民族社区对气候变化认识的记录和验证。

喜马拉雅山的高海拔地区是最好的气候变化指标之一，但由于缺乏气候监测站而引人注目。但是，他们支持以气候为生的种族社区。因此，这些社区是同样的敏锐观察者，并记录他们对气候变化的看法现在已成为全球研究的重要领域。因此，进行本研究的主要目的是记录喜马拉雅西部居民社区Bhangalis的气候变化感知，并分析他们对年龄和性别的感知变化。为此，受访者进行了调查（家庭，n  = 430；个人访谈，n = 240），并对收集到的数据进行统计分析。这项研究还通过Mann-Kendall检验，利用可用的天气数据（1974-2017年）验证了对Bhangalis的感知。结果表明，Bhangalis感知到11个气候变化指标，其中降雪量下降最为明显（约97％的受访者报告）。两种性别之间的看法各不相同，在所有11个指标中，男性的回答比例明显更高。同样，也观察到年龄组之间的看法差异，与较低年龄的受访者相比，老年人报告的气候变化指标比例更高。值得注意的是，孟加拉国同意气象数据的趋势。这突出了该研究在记录族裔社区知识方面的重要性，特别是在缺乏监测站的地区。它主张让他们参与气候变化计划。