Sajong, Nepal (AP) – Samoong village in the Himalayas was not died in one day.
Located in Wadih Valley, winds in the upper Mustang, Nepal, more than 13,000 feet (3962 meters) above sea level. The Buddhist village lived in a cultivar and baptized rhythm-liability and her sheep and their harvesting under the slopes appearing with “Skys”-2,2Sbers on the chest, and flow.
Then the water dried up. The snow -covered mountains turned brown and arid, after a year, snowfall decreased. The springs and channels disappeared and when it rains, the water came at one time, the fields flooded and muddles dissolve. Families left one by one, leaving the remains of the skeleton of the community that transformed climate change: the collapsed homes in the clay, cracked brochures and unjust shrines.
Variable
The areas of the Hindus Mountain Kush and Himalaya – which extends from Afghanistan to Myanmar – carry more ice than anywhere outside the Arctic and the South Pole. Ice rivers feed the main rivers that support 240 million people in the mountains – and another 1.65 billion.
These high -heating areas are faster than low land. The ice rivers and the grumbling of the soil regions decrease where snowfall becomes more rare and more urgent, according to the International Center in Kathmandu for Integrated mountain development or ICMOD.
Kunga Gurung is among the many high hemalayas that already lives through the irreversible effects of climate change.
“We moved because there was no water. We needed water for drinking and farm. But there are no one. Three currents, and all three toured,” said Gorong, 54.
Neil Adjar, a professor of human geography at the University of Exeter, said that climate change quietly reshapes it as people can live and work by disrupting agriculture and accessing water and weather patterns. In places like Mustang, this makes life more difficult, even if people don’t always say that the climate change is the reason for their movement. “On the daily basis, the changing weather patterns … they actually affect people’s ability to live in certain places,” said Adger.
The societies are forced to move
Throughout the world, harsh weather is forced due to climate change societies to move, whether they are strong tropical storms In the Philippines and Hondurasand Drought in Somalia or Forest fires in California.
Amina Mahrjan, an ICMOD immigration specialist at the top of the world, said not the only society that should start again. Some villages move only short distances, but the main driver inevitably is a lack of water.
And she said, “The scarcity of water is assured.”
Decreased ice rivers – the ice -hanging rivers with the world’s decline – are the most concrete and direct evidence of climate change. Up to 80 % of the size of the Ice Mountain in Hindu Kush and Himalayas in this century if greenhouse gas emissions are not cut significantly, Warning report 2023.
The snow has not fallen in Upper Mustang for nearly three years, a severe blow to those who live and agriculture in the villages of height. Traditionally puts snowfall the seasonal calendar, determines when barley crops, buckwheat, potatoes are planted and affect the health of grazing cattle.
“It is very important,” said Muaarjan.
For Samjung, the loss of dehydration and installation began at the end of the century. Traditional mud houses have collapsed for the cold dry mountain climate with more intense monsoon rain – which is associated with transformation scientists with climate change. The sharp slopes in the region and narrow valleys turned into clear floods that destroy homes and agricultural lands, which led to a wave of migration that started a decade ago.
Finding a place for a new village
It was not the transfer of a village – even one with less than 100 of the population like Samjung – a simple endeavor. They needed reliable access to water and nearby communities to get support during disasters. The move near the winding mountainous roads would allow villagers to market their crops and benefit from growing tourism. Ultimately, Mustang, who still owns large areas of the land in the region after nearly two decades of cancellation of the royal Nepal, and a suitable land for a new village.
Pimba Gurong, 18, and her sister Tushi Lama Gurong, 22, does not remember a lot about moving from their old village. But they remember how difficult it is again. Families spent years collecting materials to build new mud houses with bright tin surfaces on the banks of the iceberg, about 15 km (9 miles). They built shelters for livestock and channels to bring water to their homes. Only then can move.
Some villagers are still cutting sheep and yak, but life is a little different in New Scong, which is close to Le Manethang, a city in the Middle Ages cut from the world until 1992, when foreigners were allowed first to visit. It is a center for pilgrims and tourists who want the trip in the high mountains and explore its ancient Buddhist culture, so some villagers work in tourism.
The Bimba sisters and Toshi are grateful for not spending hours in bringing water every day. But they miss their old house.
“This is the place of our origin,” Toshi said. “But I don’t think it will be possible,” Toshi said.
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