The highest mountain range in the world is much more than the physical mass that most of the world recognizes. Stretching in an immense arc of 2500 kms in length, along the boundaries and covering parts of 5 Asian countries, the rugged terrain of the Himalaya range is broken intermittently by valleys and plateaux that have allowed habitation. Although a tremendously difficult terrain, the Himal...

The Himalayan mountain range is one of the most species-rich areas in the world, harboring about 8% of the world's bird species. In this study, we compare the relative importance of immigration versus in situ speciation to the build-up of the Himalayan avifauna, by evaluating the biogeographic history of the Phylloscopus/Seicercus warblers, a speciose clade that is well represented in Himalayan...

objective: himalayan mountain populations have been dependent upon indigenous plant resources for their health care for many years. tribal women are interested in use of local herbs for cosmetic purposes. the present work is based on the results of research conducted on cosmetic uses of some important plants by the tribal women in district poonch, azad kashmir pakistan. materials and methods: a...

BACKGROUND Climate change in the Himalayas, a biodiversity hotspot, home of many sacred landscapes, and the source of eight largest rivers of Asia, is likely to impact the well-being of ~20% of humanity. However, despite the extraordinary environmental, cultural, and socio-economic importance of the Himalayas, and despite their rapidly increasing ecological degradation, not much is known about ...

We performed a taxonomic study on two species of the genus Bryoria from the Sino-Himalayas, SW-China. B. nadvornikiana is new to China and B. furcellata is new to Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in the Sino-Himalayas. Morphology, habitat, distributions and chemistry of the two species are discussed.

The present paper provides a description of the male caste and re-description of the worker and queen castes of the poorly known ant species Lasiusalienoflavus Bingham, 1903. This species has hitherto been reported only from the Himalayas, and the present data are also based on specimens collected in the north-western part of the mountain range. Likewise other Himalayan ants, this species also ...

Arctic, Antarctic and inaccessible lofty regions of Himalayas, which are geographically diverse areas and have been a constant source of inspiration, envisages a challenging field of study 'by early adirelrturers and scientists of the world. Characteristics of ice obtained at Arctic and Antarctic do not possess similar properties. Even the salient properties of snow and ice of western and centr...

High-elevation valleys in dry areas of the Himalayas are among the most extreme, yet least explored environments on Earth. These barren, rocky valleys are subjected to year-round temperature fluctuations across the freezing point and very low availability of water and nutrients, causing previous workers to hypothesize that no photoautotrophic life (primary producers) exists in these locations. ...

Darjeeling in West Bengal, India, is a part of the Himalayas biodiversity. Though mosquitoes are common to this region, they are restricted in their abundance in the rainy season. Previous surveys have revealed the presence of several culicine mosquito species including Aedes w-albus, and the predatory mosquitoes Toxorhynchites splendens from this region, and a few other dipteran species that d...

in this investigation an attempt has been made to study the species composition, distribution and seasonal fluctuation of acarine community (arachnida: acari) in two undisturbed and well-vegetated plots located within padmaja naidu himalayan zoolo-gical park, darjeeling, india. the study continued for three consecutive years (january to december 1999–2001) revealed the presence of 10 acarine ge...