Academic literature on the topic 'Kaligandaki Basin'

This study was conducted on conflict due to Assamese Macaques (Macaca assamensis McClelland 1840) and crop protection strategies in Kaligandaki river basin, Baglung and Parbat Districts, Western Nepal. Field survey was conducted from 25 October to 22 December, 2015. Questionnaire survey was carried out to estimate the crop protection strategies and crop damaged by the macaque with the local inhabitants in the Kaligandaki River Basin VDCs. Stratified random sampling method was used to select respondent for the questionnaire survey. Out of 654 river basin households, 92 respondents were selected as sample size from the study area. Maize was the highest raided crop 46.95% followed by 15.91% paddy, 15.11% potato, 10.84% millet, 6.88% wheat, 2.05% pulses, 1.59% fruits and 0.66% vegetables. The most commenly used crop protection strategy in guarding their field were by constant vigilance 50%, 25% of field owners use “Scarecrows” 20% used dogs, 5% farmers used tin-box and catapult to chase the macaques from the crop fields. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Men and women variably perceive climate change, as the literature suggests that women perceive a higher level of changes compared to men. This study investigated differentials in climate change perception among Nepal's men and women, using a river basin level primary data. Data were collected from 360 household heads of three spatial clusters – Meghauli (153), Lumle (141), and Upper-Mustang (66), located at different ecological zones of the Kaligandaki Basin. Out of the total respondents, 106 were women. Perceptions on 11 weather-related elements were asked to the respondents to level the perceived change in the unipolar Likert Scale. Such information was supplemented through 75 Key Informants (KIs), 24 Focused Group Discussions (FGDs), and Historical Timeline Calendars from nine locations. Findings suggest that differences in climate change perception exist between women and men, and women in particular generally felt a higher level of change. However, the findings are not strongly supported by both statistical tests i.e. test of mean differences (the independent sample t-test) between the responses of men and women, and the test of association (chi-square) between the gender of respondents and the type of responses they have chosen. The findings indicate that both men and women perceive the change if it was easily noticeable. Therefore, a critical understanding of the association of other socio-economic and ecological factors on the construction of perception to climate change would be necessary to form a successful climate change adaptation policy. Furthermore, since the findings are based on an exploratory and cross-sectional study, further investigation with rigorous approaches is required to draw more concrete conclusions.

Men and women variably perceive climate change, as the literature suggests that women perceive a higher level of changes compared to men. This study investigated differentials in climate change perception among Nepal's men and women, using a river basin level primary data. Data were collected from 360 household heads of three spatial clusters – Meghauli (153), Lumle (141), and Upper-Mustang (66), located at different ecological zones of the Kaligandaki Basin. Out of the total respondents, 106 were women. Perceptions on 11 weather-related elements were asked to the respondents to level the perceived change in the unipolar Likert Scale. Such information was supplemented through 75 Key Informants (KIs), 24 Focused Group Discussions (FGDs), and Historical Timeline Calendars from nine locations. Findings suggest that differences in climate change perception exist between women and men, and women in particular generally felt a higher level of change. However, the findings are not strongly supported by both statistical tests i.e. test of mean differences (the independent sample t-test) between the responses of men and women, and the test of association (chi-square) between the gender of respondents and the type of responses they have chosen. The findings indicate that both men and women perceive the change if it was easily noticeable. Therefore, a critical understanding of the association of other socio-economic and ecological factors on the construction of perception to climate change would be necessary to form a successful climate change adaptation policy. Furthermore, since the findings are based on an exploratory and cross-sectional study, further investigation with rigorous approaches is required to draw more concrete conclusions.

The global climate system is changing faster than earlier projections with variable rates across the geographic scale. The impacts are also perceived heterogeneously across the places and communities. This study explores gender differentials in impact-perception in the Kaligandaki river valley in central Nepal. Research used primary data collected from 360 households, 75 Key Informants and 24 Focus Groups Discussion as well as through construction of nine Historical Timeline Calendars from three clusters – Meghauli (lower basin), Lumle (middlepart) and Upper-Mustang (upper-basin). The impact perception was assessed under seven social-ecological variables in the unipolar Likert Scale. The impact perception does not significantly differ across the gender of respondents while testing the means of perception scores and probably it is due to the impacts that have been experienced at profound level. The test of independence of gender to level of impacts indicates no significant association. This research also tried to check if other social-economic variables such as age of respondents and landholding size of household as well as self-reported economic status of households were significantly associated with some of the impacts. However, the number of cells with expected counts less than 5 in chi-square test turned to be more than 20 percent so they were considered to be invalid. Nevertheless, impact perception is significantly associated with the places of residence or study clusters, which indicates that local social-ecological system matters in climate change impacts. The qualitative information however, suggests otherwise that women feel higher level of risk and impacts, and is related to their concern over the welfare of family members and livelihood resources. Since risk perception is found to be related to spatial characteristics, this research recommends for development and implementation of targeted and localized adaptation policies. None the less, those policies must also recognize the women’s concerns on climate change impacts.

This study explored bird diversity, seasonal variation, and associated factors along an elevational gradient in an important biodiversity area (IBA) of central Nepal: the Kaligandaki River basin of Annapurna Conservation Area. The field survey was carried out in 2019 over two seasons, winter (January and February) and summer (May and June) using the point count method. A total of 90 sampling plots were set up from elevations of 800m (Beni) to 3,800m (Muktinath). Data for variables including the number of fruiting trees (indicator of resource availability) and distance to the road (indicator of disturbance) were collected, and their influence on avian diversity were assessed. The results revealed a diverse assemblage of avian fauna in the study area with consistent species richness over the two seasons. A decline in species richness and diversity with increasing elevation was observed. Of the different habitat types within the study area, forest and shrubland habitats showed the strongest association with bird species distribution and richness. We emphasize the need for long-term monitoring programs with standardized sampling approaches to better understand the avifauna in the central Himalaya.

Anthropogenic activities have led to the transformation of river basins and natural flow alteration around the world. Alteration in flow regimes have adverse effects on river ecosystems. Flow value changes signify the alteration extent and a number of flow related indices can be used to assess the extent of alteration in a river ecosystem. Selection of a few and ecologically relevant indices from a large set of available indices is a daunting task. Principal Component Analysis helps to reduce these large indices to a few ecologically significant indices and removes statistical redundancy of data to give uncorrelated data sets. These representative indices are useful in the primary investigation of a less studied area like the Kaligandaki River basin, Nepal. This paper uses reduced indices from the Kaligandaki River to calculate the alteration on the river section downstream of a hydropower facility using the Histogram Comparison Approach (HCA) combined with Hydrologic Year Types (HYT). The combined approach eliminates the potential underestimation of alteration values which may occur due to the exemption of hydrologic year types from the analysis, a feature equally relevant in river ecology. A new metric is used for the calculation of combined alteration using HCA-HYT in this paper. The analysis showed 60.71 percent alteration in the natural flow regime in the area past a hydropower construction, which is classified in the high alteration category. The study can be a guide for further analysis of the ecological flow management of a river section and a parsimonious approach to other areas where hydrological data is limited to historical flow records only.

A study on Assamese monkeys (Macaca assamensis) in Kaligandaki river basin at Ramdi of Palpa and Syangja districts of western Nepal was performed. The field study was conducted from February 2015 to January 2016 spending 1804 hours to explore the ecology and feeding behavior of Assamese macaque. The study mainly focused the Ramdi village area. A total of 24 individuals of Assamese monkeys were counted towards Palpa district and 18 individuals were counted towards Syangja district. Crop raiding status was examined each year by questionnaire survey method for local household villagers as well as direct observation by the researcher. It was found that maize (47.14 %) was the highest raided among the crops, followed by fruits (16.43 %), wheat (11.13 %), millet (5.72 %), rice (4.58 %), potato (4.27 %), lentil (4.07 %), mustard (1.26 %), pumpkin (1.14 %), bread (0.96 %), brown lentil (0.81 %), broad beans (0.80 %), sesame (0.60 %), black pulses (0.35 %), dal (0.20 %), cauliflower (0.14 %), tomato (0.1 %), egg (0.1 %), samosa (0.1 %) and gram (0.1%).

Climate change and associated impacts are pressing issues for the twenty-first century. The climatic impacts and associated adaptation responses are altering complex interrelationships between people and the environment. Although the problems generated by such change are global, the intensity of impacts varies spatially. This research examines the implications of climate change on the local social-ecological systems of the Kaligandaki Basin, Nepal; it maps the adaptation efforts of communities; and assesses food and livelihood (in) security and vulnerability of the social-ecosystems to inform adaptation policy and practice. The study applies a geographical approach to explain human-environmental interrelationships by drawing from both social and natural scientific methodologies inherent to the discipline. The concepts of human ecology and social-ecology, climatic and environmental change, vulnerability and adaptation, are explored and applied in the research. The Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) is integrated with the Drivers-Pressure-State of Change-Impacts-Response (DPSIR) analysis framework to explain the complex local human-environmental interactions with climate change. Case studies are drawn from three different ecological zones: the Tarai, the Middle-Mountains and the Trans-Himalaya to inform a comparative analysis in the Kaligandaki Basin. Climate change in the Kaligandaki Basin is assessed by analysing both meteorological data for the past 40 years and social perceptions of change in the last decade. Primary data on impacts and adaptation responses were collected through face-to-face interviews with household heads from 360 households, 24 focus group discussions, 7 historical timeline calendars, 75 key informant interviews, and 9 crop calendar sketches. The findings suggest that the social-ecological systems of the Himalaya are highly sensitive to both climatic and non-climatic stressors. Climate sensitive livelihood capitals are increasingly exposed to climate change, as both scientific and social analyses indicate increased temperatures and more extreme weather events. The changes and variability in the climate system have negatively impacted all social-ecological systems, particularly in the Middle-Mountains. Consequently, many local communities are trapped in a situation of multiple livelihood constraints associated with ecological, economic, social and political environments. To respond to those constraints and reduce the negative implications of change, people are trying to adopt adaptation strategies, mostly at the individual household or community levels. The studied communities demonstrate significant adaptation knowledge; however, such knowledge is not sufficiently translated into adaptation actions. Many households are losing hope of agricultural adaptation due to climate change impacts and unfavourable political-economic environments. Cash income is now the preferred option for many, and young adults are leaving communities and the country in search of paid employment. The poor quality of livelihood capitals; increasing climate change impacts; and poor adoption of adaptation strategies together have significant negative implications for local food and livelihood security. The research has important implications for policy that aims to integrate disaster management, agricultural development, livelihood diversification, and community empowerment in relation to climate change adaptation in Nepal. The research supports theoretical discussions on the value of undertaking complex social-ecological analyses to generate knowledge that is both holistic and directly applicable for local adaptation planning and practice. By applying similar approaches in other contexts, especially in the developing world, the issues inhibiting broader development processes could be integrated with an understanding of climate change impacts for targeted, comprehensive adaptation policy outcomes.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2016.