Hello everybody, happy Sunday! Hope your weekend has been going well. It’s been raining on and off here but not as much as it used to, say, about two decades ago.
Now we aren’t hoping for a deluge like the one from few weeks ago, but the rain definitely has become more sporadic and comes in short bursts, which some experts looking at global rainfall patterns from 1950-2020 have called “more concentrated and intense events” (see Chapter 2.2.4 of this recent report by ICIMOD). In fact, a lot of the flooding that happened last month was precisely as explained in Chapter 2.2.4.
Anyways, this is too much for a Sunday and honestly, the sporadic rain brought up many amazing photo opportunities which we wanted to make this newsletter about really! So here is a photo essay on the Dharamshala monsoons, 2023:
Did you know that Dharamshala, where we are based, falls on the Sindhu (Indus) river basin? Check it out:
Isn’t it really interesting that basins have their own maps that have nothing at all to do with country maps? But for this map, who could say that Dharamshala and Kabul are essentially drained by the same river system? Or that the moon peak (Indrahar) that overlooks Dharamshala is part of the same river basin as K2?
But for this map, who could say that Dharamshala and Kabul are essentially drained by the same river system?
Basin maps are a really great way of beginning to look at historical cultural linkages. For example, the Sindhu covers parts of India, Pakistan, East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Tibet. A lot more actually unites us than divides us, and Dharamshala is a fine example, being home to the Tibetan Government in Exile. This is partly why we are making efforts to share our tracking work with organizations such as the Central Tibetan Administration, Students for a Free Tibet, and the World Uyghur Congress. Any other organizations you have in mind?
Afterall, this is our common basin and we must all be aware of environmental issues plaguing it! Well, that is it for this edition. We’re going to leave you, as always, with a photograph of a family of Langurs enjoying in the Central Tibetan Administration complex:
Regards,
Himalayan Advocacy Center
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Postscript:
As you may know, we are a small non profit in the environment + law space located in the Indian Himalayas. We are completely bootstrapped! This means no foreign funding and no fancy headquarters - just a small community - of which you all are an integral part - in the long run we hope!
Whats more - we, at the Center, are determined to localise efforts for the planet, without compromising on the best that the law has to offer. If you have the means, and want to support a committed local undertaking, please do consider contributing to our corpus. We hope to pleasantly surprise you with detailed information on where you money has been spent!