Climate change, environmental pollution and ecological degradation are making lives insecure in large parts of the world. Climate distress and ecological degradation driven insecurity has become a big hazard for the world’s largest population concentration. This growing insecurity is the story of the lives of large number of humans living in the World’s only subcontinent called the South Asia by the regional geographers. If governed and looked after well, South Asia’s large demography is a potential social and economic asset. For a diverse array of historic, political and administrative reasons a very large number of South Asians are, however, not living safe, healthy and prosperous lives. As one studies the climatic, environmental, ecological and human indicators describing the various aspects of human existence in the region, one sees insecurity and deprivation.
Environmental pollution and climate change are the major challenge to the human beings and other life forms in South Asia today. The mountains of South Asia hold world’s largest alpine glacial ice. The region is called the Third Pole by the geographers due to the presence of such large amount of ice. This Alpine ice is a huge reservoir of water that feeds the one dozen large rivers of the region. Rivers ranging rom the Kabul river in the North West of South Asia to the Ganges river valley and the Brahmaputra river in the East most of the rivers of the northern South Asia are fed by the glacial ice of the Hindukush, the Karakorum and the Himalayas. Over millions of years, these rivers have built fertile plains in the river valleys and deltaic regions of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan. Waters of these rivers provide the life blood for Bio-climatic resources of these various countries. Agriculture, forests, vegetation and animal lives ranging from the microbes to elephants, flora and fauna are all dependent on the health of these rivers and the ecological well-being of their watersheds and catchment areas.
Years of environmental pollution, deforestation, irresponsible tourism, hunting games and, of late, housing and real estate practices are threatening all; the alpine glaciers, the rivers, the forests, the agriculture, the wild life and biodiversity in most of the South Asia. Climate Change triggered by irresponsible human practices is putting a huge stress on both the hydrology and the ecological balance in the region. The precipitation patterns and temperature trends are aggravating to points where they are becoming a threat to the agriculture, agroforestry, livestock and cattle on one hand and the healthy subsistence of human beings in the urban and rural areas alike.
Much of the population density on the banks of the rivers in South Asia has depended on the agriculture and food supply derived from the rivers. The cropping patterns and the harvests have always relied on favorable supply of water from the rivers and through precipitation. The regular annual cycles of temperature changes through the winters, spring, summers, Monsoons and autumn are critically important for ensuring robust agriculture in the region. Any unusual variation in their trends can hit the crops production, livestock raising and animal husbandry in ways where the food security of the teeming millions of the region shall be threatened.
An adverse climatic change or stress can thus bring about an economic collapse which shall unleash uncontrollable social and political tensions. The questions of environmental security and climate change are therefore the major security matters in the whole of South Asia. Paleontology shows us that extinction of species including the human groups has been a reality of life for a number of times in the history of human civilization. A considerable historical opinion attributes the decline and destruction of the Indus Valley Civilization to the changes in the course of, or , the extinction of a major river in the Indus valley. A major shift in the regional climate is cites as a reason for that hydrological calamity. We hope that human activities in South Asia and the neighborhood today would not jeopardize the regional climates to points where they become a major hazard for humans and other living beings.
