Udhab Raj Khadka

• Tribhuvan University

Forest fire frequency in Nepal has increased in recent years. Field-level assessments of fire impacts on plant community assemblage and postfire recovery dynamics across different ecological zones are limited in Nepal, creating a research gap in understanding the ecological processes affected due to wildfires. This study investigates the impacts of...

Freshwater fish are crucial components of aquatic ecosystems that are affected by a range of anthropogenic activities. Freshwater bodies in Nepal are under different threats affecting biodiversity. Inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) involving damming and diversion of water from one river basin to another is considered a major threat to aquatic biodi...

Inter Basin Water Transfer (IBWT) is a water resource stressor globally with negative environmental impacts. This study describes the major ions and hydrochemistry of the first ever ongoing IBWT from snow-fed Bheri River to rain-fed Babai River in Western Nepal. Water samples from 10 sites, five from each river system, were collected in HDPE bottle...

The main purpose of this study was to assess the irrigation water quality of the Bheri and Babai Rivers and their tributaries prior to the proposed inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) in western Nepal. A total of 40 water samples from five sites in each river system were collected from January (winter), March-April (spring), June (summer) and October...

Forest fire is a global phenomenon, resulting in devastation across regions. Nepal is not an exception where forest ecosystems and environment are vulnerable to forest fires, causing loss of properties and lives. While a range of studies have been conducted on the causes of forest fire and its impact, temporal and spatial dimensions along with ecol...

Benthic macroinvertebrates, encompassing large taxonomic groups of invertebrate organisms, are important components of aquatic ecosystems and play crucial roles in aquatic food webs. These organisms are also extensively used in water quality assessments as bioindicators for a range of stressors. Inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) is the transfer of...

Nepal is rich in water resource with having more than 6000 rivers and rivulets distributed in different river basins. Among the basins, Bagmati River Basin lies in the middle-hill regions of the central Nepal encompassing the capital city Kathmandu. On the bank of the river, there lies a famous and sacred Hindu temples complex the Pashupatinath, on...

The vegetation composition and elevation play a key role in the distribution of plants. Among the flowering plants, orchids are widely distributed beautiful flowers having ornamental and medicinal values. The Panchase Forest Conservation Area is one of the hot spots for the orchids, a threatened group of the flowering plants. The preceding studies...

Forest fires triggered by various natural and anthropogenic drivers are increasing and threatening forest ecosystems across the globe. In Nepal, the high value Tropical Mixed Broad-leaved Forests are prone to fire caused by both natural and anthropogenic drivers. Thus, understanding fire drivers and their effect is important for the sustainable for...

Nepal is a diverse country with lowlands of Terai to the highest mountains attracting many tourists and visitors to make visits. So, the tourism in Nepal is primarily nature-based as tourists are mostly attracted by the spectacular landscapes, majestic mountains, glaciers, lakes, rivers and biodiversity across its diverse ecological gradient. Mount...

Mountain environments, mountain hydrology, and mountain inhabitant’s livelihood has been affected by climate change in direct and indirect manner, thus by bringing alternation in migration patterns. This research scrutinizes climate change–induced impacts on livelihood and migration in Trans-Himalayan Mustang district of Nepal. Mann-Kendall’s trend...

Loss of life and property due to human induced and natural landslides are common in Himalayan region of Nepal. Intense precipitation over a short period of time, unplanned road construction, degradation of forests, and change in land use are expected to increase the number and intensity of landslides in the already fragile mountainous tracts of the...

Phewa Lake in Nepal is a lake of international importance providing crucial ecological and economic services. However, increased urbanization, population growth and anthropogenic activities have resulted in degradation of the lake. Thus, understanding the lake hydro-geochemistry is crucial for identifying sources of elements. Preceding studies have...

This review describes the current status of freshwater fish diversity, their IUCN categories and threats to fish fauna in Nepal. The freshwater systems of the country are known to harbor over 220 fish species, thereby indicating a rich ichthyofaunal diversity. However, this number varies from author to author. Cyprinidae is the most common and domi...

Water Poverty Index (WPI) is an effective tool to assess water stress by linking physical approximations of water availability with socioeconomic drivers of poverty at household and community levels. It also helps in determining the priority needs for interventions and makes the better use of water resources without compromising the environmental i...

Water Poverty Index (WPI) is an effective tool to assess water stress by linking physical approximations of water availability with socioeconomic drivers of poverty at household and community levels. It also helps in determining the priority needs for interventions and makes the better use of water resources without compromising the environmental i...

Forest fires are one of the major environmental issues globally. In Nepal, substantial amounts of forest biomass and carbon are lost due to fire. Nepal’s high value lowland forests are particularly vulnerable to fire. However, there are limited studies on the estimation of biomass loss and carbon emissions due to fire. Thus, this research addresses...

Phewa and Begnas lakes in Pokhara Valley are playing important roles in ecological, economic, cultural and aesthetic aspects. However, due to increase in anthropogenic pressure and activities in the lake catchment, the nutrient load in the lakes has been substantially increased. The growth of algae and phytoplankton is largely dictated by carbon (C...

Wetlands are the dynamic ecosystems with high yielding capacity which are considered very prolific from view point of biodiversity. With prime functioning of water supply, wetlands are well known for supplementary functions of providing ecosystem services viz., groundwater recharge, carbon sequestration, preventing water logging and flooding etc. T...

The Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region covers over 4 million km² (about 2.9%) of the global land area and approximately 18% of the mountain area. These mountains are headwaters of ten major river systems that provide livelihood to 210 million people living there, and indirectly provide goods and services to 1.3 billion people downstream. Despite loc...

Growing urbanization in Kathmandu Valley has reduced the agriculture land and is anticipated further reduction coming days leading to agricultural vulnerability. The increasing built-up areas, however, might be opportunity for alternative methods of agriculture production like aquaponics which incorporates both aquaculture and hydroponics in a sing...

The book entitled ‘Climate Change: The Science, Impact and Solution' contains six chapters that bring science, case studies and application from across the subjects of climate science and climate change. The book chapters are prepared by a team comprising university faculties and subject experts affiliated with environmental science. The chapters a...

A baseline study on fish assemblages of the Bheri and the Babai rivers in mid-west Nepal in the wake of first inter-basin water transfer under the Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project (BBDMP) was conducted. A total of 10 sites were sampled in these rivers and their upstream tributaries during January 2018 (Winter). To supplement the study s...

There are greater consensus among the climate scientists that the global warming and associated climate change has triggered the hazards and increased community vulnerability in the recent years. As river corridors are the active resources and energy flow regimes, the vulnerability concentrated along the river corridors are likely to hamper the reg...

This paper identified ecosystem services of Panchase Protected Forest (PPF) in the mid-hills of western Nepal using the Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity (TEEB) framework. Transect walk, focus group discussion, key informants interview and expert’s consultation were used. This study revealed that PPF offered wide range of ecosystem services i...

Forests provide numbers of ecosystem services for human wellbeing. However, the importance of ecosystem services arising from forests is poorly recognized in developing countries like Nepal. The present study has estimated economic value of ecosystem services provided by Panchase Protected Forest of Nepal. Applying contingent valuation method, 364...

Forests provide numbers of cultural ecosystem services for human wellbeing. However, the importance of cultural ecosystem services arising from forests is poorly recognized in developing countries like Nepal. The present study has estimated economic value of cultural ecosystem services provided by Panchase Protected Forest of Nepal. Travel cost met...

p>Landslide causes massive loss of lives and properties along with intangible losses in mountainous regions. Yet such intangible losses in ecosystems are rarely considered. The present study assesses the tree biomass lost due to Jure landslide in Sindhupalchowk that destroyed 71 hectare of land. Altogether, 12 plots (250 m²) were sampled...

The water footprint is consumption-based indicator of water use. Water footprint is defi ned as the total volume of both indirect and the direct freshwater used for producing goods and services consumed by individuals or inhabitants of community. There are many studies regarding the direct water use but studies incorporating both direct and indirec...

Soil quality management helps to maintain biological productivity; air and water quality; and human habitation and health. As improper land management can deteriorate soil function, the evaluation of soil quality for different land use is necessary. To evaluate soil quality for different land use types in the Panchase area, soil quality index was c...

The Begnas Lake in the Pokhara Valley is one of the threatened habitats in Nepal. The major ion chemistry explains the status of most of the inorganic nutrients and their possible sources. However, the earlier studies mostly cover limnological investigations, and phytoplankton and zooplankton diversity. Thus, the present study has been conducted to...