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Documentation and validation of climate change perception of an ethnic community of the western Himalaya

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Abstract

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.

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Abbreviations

IPCC:

Intergovernmental panel on climate change

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organization

EIA:

Environmental impact assessment

%:

Percentage

ha:

Hectare

°C:

Degree Celsius

mm:

Millimeters

~:

Approximately

b :

Coefficient

p :

Probability value

*:

Significant value

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Director CSIR-IHBT for the facilities and the administrative authorities of Panjab University for the support. Faculty members of the high-altitude biology division are acknowledged for their support. Er. Amit Kumar is thanked for helping the authors in map preparation. We are thankful to the Editor-in-Chief and two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped in improving the earlier draft of the manuscript. This is IHBT communication number 4304.

Funding

This study was financially supported by The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change via the NMHS project GAP-0199.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. High Altitude Biology Division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, 176061, Palampur, HP, India

    Alpy Sharma & Sanjay Kr. Uniyal

  2. Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India

    Alpy Sharma & Daizy Rani Batish

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  1. Alpy Sharma
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  2. Daizy Rani Batish
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Correspondence to Sanjay Kr. Uniyal.

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Sharma, A., Batish, D.R. & Uniyal, S.K. Documentation and validation of climate change perception of an ethnic community of the western Himalaya. Environ Monit Assess 192, 552 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08512-x

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