The Tarim red deer Cervus hanglu has been recently recognized as a separate deer species with populations in China, Central Asia and Kashmir. These populations are few, isolated and at risk of extinction. The documented range of the Kashmir population of the hangul, now recognized as Cervus hanglu hanglu, is restricted to c. 808 km2 and comprises < 200 individuals, confined mainly to the 141 km2 Dachigam National Park. A few relict herds inhabit the surrounding landscape. Here we analyse the results of almost 20 years of population monitoring (January 2001–March 2020). We found that this population is unable to increase despite full protection within Dachigam National Park. We performed a population viability analysis using both deterministic and stochastic simulations and found that further population decrease is likely. We recommend the use of improved monitoring methods to investigate the population dynamics of the hangul and the implementation of measures to reduce the risk of extinction faced by this small population. Science-based conservation policies, including ex situ conservation and reintroduction programmes, will be required to increase the hangul population size and range.

A novel species in the genus Squamulea, S. chikarensis, is described from Himalayan moist temperate forest in Pakistan. The morphology, chemistry and ITS sequences support its distinction from other species of this genus. The taxon is characterized by a pale green to yellow thallus, large apothecia up to 0.8–1.8 mm wide, pale yellow to yellow-orange apothecial discs, a hymenium 70–110 μm high, large ascospores (12–20 × 5–11 μm) and a narrow ascospore septum (1.5–3 μm). In addition, S. flakusii is reported as new to Pakistan and Eurasia.

In the last decade the tiger Panthera tigris population in the Terai Arc Landscape and Himalayas has increased, while populations in other countries have remained below their conservation targets. Although there has been some research on tiger conservation in the Terai Arc Landscape and the Himalayas, scientists and managers have not catalogued and characterized tiger research in the region, with empirical findings scattered among disparate document types, journals and countries. Without a review of the tiger research in the Terai Arc Landscape and Himalayan region, it is difficult to analyse or change conservation policies, develop adaptation strategies, prioritize research, allocate resources or develop conservation strategies potentially employable elsewhere. We therefore conducted a systematic scoping review to identify focal research areas, the spatial and temporal distribution of study sites, general publication trends, the extent of empirical studies, and gaps in tiger conservation research in this region (which spans Bhutan, India and Nepal). Since 2000, 216 studies have been published on issues associated with tiger conservation in the Terai Arc Landscape and Himalayas, with an increasing number over time. Most empirical studies have focused on tiger habitat, ecology and conflicts in protected areas in the region's foothills. There are research gaps in high-altitude landscapes, social science investigations, conservation economics, and policy and institutional analyses.

This article posits that friendship has been a particularly fertile and creative category against the backdrop of imperial expansion and consolidation in the Himalayas. As a small but strategically perceived sovereign Himalayan country, Bhutan's history through the last centuries has been marked simultaneously by imperial and post-colonial asymmetries of power. The term “friendship” is deployed as a key diplomatic category in Bhutan's most significant relationship, that with its much larger neighbour India. However, the origin of this friendship is always traced back to the mid-twentieth-century post-colonial period. In contradistinction to this, I constellate a much longer history of this friendship with a special focus on the landmark 1910 Treaty of Punakha between Bhutan and Britain, which was a key turning point in Bhutan's relations with its southern neighbour (British India at the time). Scholars typically state as a matter of fact that in the year 1910, with the initiative of Political Officer Charles Bell, a treaty was signed between Britain and Bhutan that placed Bhutan's external relations under the guidance of Britain. This present work is situated within the oeuvre of critically rereading imperial sources and evaluating their historical legacies, and is the first detailed scholarly analysis of why this treaty was significant and how it came to be signed. I identify the factors that were at work in how and why the 1910 friendship treaty was realised for imperial British purposes—the interpersonal friendships fostered by the British Political Officers; the threat of China as an Other; and the representation of material and ideational advantages from associating with an imperial power. In making this argument, I analyse the role played by the vocabulary of friendship and draw upon primary archival sources to illustrate the factors that were at work as well as the dissonance between the archival and public rationales provided by Political Officer Bell. The 1910 treaty was signed at a watershed moment after the then-recent installation of a monarchy in Bhutan in 1907, and against the great game backdrop of Qing activities in Tibet and British interests in the region; throughout the twentieth century, the impact of this friendship treaty was of paramount significance, and its shadow continues into the twenty-first century.

The high-altitude landscape of western Tibet is one of the most extreme environments in which humans have managed to introduce crop cultivation. To date, only sparse palaeoeconomic data have been reported from this region. The authors present archaeobotanical evidence from five sites (dating from the late first millennium BC and the early first millennium AD) located in the cold-arid landscape of western Tibet. The data indicate that barley was widely grown in this region by c. 400 BC but probably fulfilled differing roles within local ecological constraints on cultivation. Additionally, larger sites are characterised by more diverse crop assemblages than smaller sites, suggesting a role for social diversity in the development of high-altitude agriculture.

While the colonial and contemporary economy of Bengal's Himalayan foothills is most often associated with the tea plantations of Darjeeling and the Dooars, the small farms of nearby Kalimpong were also a key space in which colonial agents and missionaries worked to “settle” the mountainous terrain. Focused on Kalimpong, this article traces the trajectory of one technology of settlement, agricultural extension, from the late 1880s to the early 1940s. It highlights agricultural extension's racialized and gendered politics, as well as its implication in a long-term project that merged material (i.e., food) provision with social reproduction (i.e., childrearing, kin-making). Agricultural extension created a patchwork of relatively biodiverse small farms that historical and contemporary accounts describe as a “green belt”: a socio-ecological outside to the plantation monocultures that dominate the hills. British governors attempted to use non-plantation space for multiple ends. In this sense, their work might be termed “biopolitical,” in that it was geared toward supporting and amplifying the life chances of certain human bodies and certain botanical species. Through a series of experiments, colonial agents made calculated choices about which of these forms of life should be made to flourish, and which might be allowed to perish. Importantly, settlement, as a set of intertwined projects, did not unfold in a coherent or deliberately sequential manner. Settlement was, and continues to be, a sedimentary process.

To achieve the challenging goals of minimizing loss of species and achieving sustainable use of biodiversity, conservation prioritization merits urgent research attention. The present study identifies the priority of conservation for the medicinal flora of the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) region, a Himalayan biodiversity hotspot. A total of 881 medicinal plant species were scored based on key ecological (endemism, threat status) and socioeconomic (use value, mode of harvesting) criteria, and 50 of these are prioritized for conservation; most of these are narrow endemics. Worryingly, all of the 50 prioritized species are currently recognized under different International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources threat categories, are highly prized for their use in traditional medicine in the region and are precious sustainable bioresources for the herbal industry. Most of these prioritized species are being harvested illegally. This integrated ecological and socioeconomic study has immediate implications for evidence-based and target-orientated conservation policy and practice in this Himalayan region.

The Nanga Parbat massif is a rapidly eroding, thrust-related antiform that is distinct from other regions of the Himalayan orogen in being both intruded by Late Miocene-Pliocene anatectic granites and permeated by a vigorous hydrothermal system. Exhumation is achieved by erosion during thrusting along the Liachar thrust in the apparent absence of extensional tectonics. At depths in excess of 20 km, small batches of leucogranitic melt have been generated by fluid-absent breakdown of muscovite from metapelitic lithologies. These melts ascend several kilometres prior to emplacement, aided by low geothermal gradients at depth and by interaction with meteoric water as they reach shallow levels. At intermediate depths (∼15 km) limited fluid infiltration is restricted to shear zones resulting in localised anatexis. Within the upper 8 km of crust, magmatic and meteoric fluid fluxes are channelised by active structures providing a feedback mechanism for focusing deformation. Leucogranite sheets show a range of pre-full crystallization and high-temperature crystal-plastic textures indicative of strain localisation onto these sheets and away from the country rocks. At subsolidus temperatures meteoric fluids promote strain localisation and may trigger cataclastic deformation. Since near-surface geothermal gradients are unusually steep, the macroscopic transition between distributed shearing and substantial, but localised, cataclastic deformation occurred at amphibolite-facies conditions (∼600°C). Even with the greatest topographic relief in the world, the meteoric system of Nanga Parbat is effectively restricted to the upper 8 km of the crust, strongly controlled by active structures.

The concentrations of LREE and Zr in a granitic melt formed by anatexis of a metapelitic protolith will be buffered by the stability of monazite and zircon respectively. The rate at which equilibrium is reached between dissolving monazite and zircon and a static melt is limited by the rate at which Zr and LREE can diffuse away from dissolution sites. If melt extraction rates exceed the rates at which the LREE and Zr in the melt become homogenized by diffusion, extracted melts will be undersaturated with respect to these elements. Evidence from accessory phase thermometry suggests that for many Himalayan leucogranites generated by crustal anatexis, the melts equilibrated with restitic monazite and zircon prior to extraction. In contrast, discordant temperatures determined from accessory phase thermometry suggest that tourmaline leucogranites from the Zanskar region of NW India did not equilibrate prior to extraction. Quantitative interpretation of this discordance assumes that the melt was static prior to extraction, and that accessory phase inheritance was minimal. Modelling of the time-dependant homogenization process suggests that tourmaline leucogranites generated at 700°C probably remained in contact with restitic monazite in the protolith for less than 7 ka and certainly less than 50 ka. Such rapid extraction rates suggest that deformation-driven mechanisms were important in removing these melts from their source.

Four new species of Boehmeria (Urticaceae) are described and named: Boehmeria listeri Friis & Wilmot-Dear and B. manipurensis Friis & Wilmot-Dear from the eastern part of the Himalayas, B. leptostachya Friis & Wilmot-Dear from southern China (Yunnan), Thailand and northern Sumatra, and B. subintegra Friis & Wilmot-Dear from Papua New Guinea. The species are illustrated and mapped and their habitat ranges are described, and conservation assessments have been produced for all.

Hunting is a serious threat to wildlife worldwide. The rainforest-rich Arunachal Pradesh state of India, a biodiversity hotspot, is an area severely affected by indigenous hunting. The state has several indigenous tribes who hunt for food, trade, culture and leisure. Using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires we surveyed 184 individuals in 51 villages across four tribes for information on species hunted and hunting practices. A total of 33 mammalian species are reportedly hunted, of which only 11 were reported by hunters during formal interviews. The other 22 species were observed during casual visits, festivals and informal discussions. Of the species hunted 20 are Endangered, Vulnerable or Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Villagers now travel longer distances to hunt than they did a decade ago, suggesting a decline in wildlife populations around villages. The extent of offtake of mammals was related to the altitude of the village and the use of guns. Villagers living at higher altitudes and with guns appeared to hunt more. We also documented the importance of ritualistic hunting by some tribes. Additional research is required to estimate offtake and consumption rates of wild meat. Increasing conservation awareness and community-based conservation projects may assist in controlling the severity and extent of this hunting problem.

The new species Leptogium sphaerosporum from Langtang in Nepal is described. It is closely related to L. pedicellatum, but differs in being more delicate with phyllidia and having spheroid spores. It is most probably a local species of the lower montane forests. An emendation to the world key of hairy Leptogium species is presented.

Many high altitude regions of the world are still occupied by traditional communities of people, whose livelihood is closely related to a narrow base of locally available natural resources. A survey was conducted in 1991–94 of two villages inhabited by Bhotiya tribal people in Dharchula block of Uttar Pradesh, India. Medicinal herbs (14 abundant species, with Partitella ramitchadalis accounting for >50% by weight) constitute 12–13% of total income to the villages. The harvest is conducted by children during August to October, around summer settlements (up to 4100 m altitude) to which the villagers annually migrate. Fifteen cooperatives with a 1992 membership of 7009 herb collectors and salespeople exist in the Dharchula block, and marketing is through two specialist government agencies. Conservation measures, including protected areas and banning of direct trade with purchasing companies, have not generally been successful; pressure on the plant populations has increased and there is evidence for decline in the resource. Cultivation appears to represent a viable option for the resource, and thus for the income of the traditional peoples who still depend on it.

Large areas of the Himalayas have become severely deforested although little has been published about the extent of this problem in the closed Kingdom of Bhutan. A preliminary survey was undertaken during 1983. Without detailed information or accurate maps, LANDSAT 2 imagery was used to prepare a sampling stratification and to plot the distribution of defined vegetation types after sampling and analysis. Eleven forest noda are described in relation to their habitats, and area and timber volume estimates given. Deforestation pressures are discussed.

A newly investigated travertine deposit in southern Tibet provides a window into Holocene hydrological, geomorphic and climatic processes near the boundary of the Tibetan Plateau and High Himalaya. Travertine, deposited as a result of the degassing of CO2-rich groundwater as it emerges on the Earth's surface, is in many cases formed along the trace of major crustal-scale faults in primarily extensional tectonic regimes. A travertine platform measuring roughly 1 km by 0.5 km exists near the town of Nyalam in southern Tibet along a major Himalayan down-to-the-N normal fault, the South Tibetan Fault System. A wide variety of travertine depositional textures and features are recorded in the platform on a series of terraces. Active travertine deposition was observed from spring mounds and seeps along the base of the platform at the modern river level. Palaeotemperatures of spring water, calculated from δ18O of the travertine, range from 9 to 25 °C, which closely matches the temperatures recorded from modern springs in the area. A complex geomorphological landscape records interaction between growing alluvial fans, travertine accumulation, and a rapidly down-cutting river with associated fluvial terraces. River incision was contemporaneous with travertine deposition, as indicated by cemented fluvial river gravel layers interbedded with travertine. High 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the travertine (mean of 0.7168) indicate subsurface fluid interaction with radiogenic crystalline rocks of the underlying Greater Himalaya. Uranium-series ages of the travertine platform range from 5400 a (±950 a) to 11600 a (±1000 a), and indicate a younging progression from higher terraces near the valley wall to lower terraces at present-day river level. Travertine that overlies a river gravel terrace 18 m above river level formed at 11600 a. This date yields a local incision rate of 1.6 mm a−1, consistent with estimated fluvial incision rates in the High Himalaya. The range of our U-series ages coincides with an interval of higher precipitation associated with greater intensity of the Indian monsoon, which led to elevated spring discharge and carbonate precipitation in this part of the High Himalayas.

A new species, Cladonia singhii Ahti & Dixit (type from the state of Arunachal Pradesh), is described. A further seven Cladonia species, C. corniculata, C. kanewskii, C. laii, C. luteoalba, C. mauritiana, C. mongolica and C. rei, are reported as new to the recent checklist of lichens of the Indian subcontinent. The presence of C. cartilaginea in India is confirmed.