Q.Explain the difficulties that are faced by the people living in the northern mountains.
Answers
Answer:
Mountain biodiversity faces a number of serious and growing challenges. Habitat degradation caused by unsustainable clearing of land results in erosion of fertile soil and increases the threat of avalanches, landslides and flooding. ... Mountain communities disintegrate and entire cultures and languages disappear.
Explanation:
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It is clear that the solution of these problems of the environment and of sustainable resource use will require management skills and a good scientific understanding of the mountain environment. Unfortunately, skilled people and scientific infrastructure are sorely lacking in some mountain countries.
Water Management
Mountains are often the major water sources for surrounding continental areas. An accumulating snow pack in the winter melts in the spring and summer, helping to even out the runoff through the year. If there are glaciers, they provide even greater water storage and regular runoff, but with climate change and global warming, they are fast disappearing. Dams are often built in mountain areas to generate hydroelectric power and for flood control.
To maintain these important functions of mountains in water management, care must be taken to maintain vegetation cover in watersheds, or erosion and landslides or avalanches may result. Mountain lakes and streams are naturally poor in nutrients and are particularly susceptible to pollution.
Plant and tree cover
Another major environmental concern for the future of mountains is the maintenance of plant and tree cover where the growing season is short, growth very slow, and damage to the land takes a long time to heal. This contributes to many subsidiary problems such as flooding, soil erosion, and loss of habitat for endangered species mentioned above. While many countries have tree replanting programmes, these have often not restored natural mountain communities but are aimed at commercial timber production.
Land Use and Land Tenure
Mountains often have conflicts between uses in limited accessible areas. Space for construction is limited, leaving villages with little room to expand. Land suitable for agriculture and animal pasture may be scattered and not easily accessible. The problems are accentuated by such things as tourism development. This requires comprehensive planning and careful allocation of land to the most appropriate use or combination of uses.
Climate change
Climate change is becoming a major challenge for mountain areas, as they are particularly susceptible. Warmer temperatures may mean less snow and more rain and flooding in winter, and drier summers. Species may shift to higher altitudes, and the highest mountain species may have nowhere to go and become extinct. The thawing of mountainsides that were formerly frozen all year round may destabilize slopes and produce serious rockfalls. Glacial lakes may fill to overflowing, burst and produce catastrophic flash floods.
Transport
Transportation is always a challenge in mountains. In rural areas, walking and pack animals may still be the primary form of transport, making it difficult to bring goods into the villages and to take products to market. Roads and railways are expensive and difficult to build up steep mountain valleys. Tunnels and bridges are often necessary. Heavy snowfall, avalanches, landslides and floods may block the roads. Communities may be totally isolated. Helicopters may have to be used in emergencies.
Tourism
In some mountain areas, tourism is now replacing agriculture as the primary economic activity. While summer hiking and mountaineering have limited environmental impacts, winter sports such as skiing require construction of ski lifts and clearing of slopes which can seriously modify the mountain environment. The concentrations of seasonal populations of tourists can overstretch water supplies and waste disposal facilities, and require construction of hotels and other facilities that may only be seasonally occupied. The employment created for mountain inhabitants may also only be seasonal, but can help to maintain mountain communities that might otherwise be depopulated.
Mining
Mining is the most significant economic activity in some mountain areas with important mineral resources, and it is inevitably accompanied by serious environmental problems. These include the disposal of mine wastes, tailings and processing wastes, erosion problems and the pollution of rivers in mined areas, loss of natural habitat, and the abandonment of unusable wastelands once the mining has ended. While new mines today are generally subject to strict environmental controls, older mines and areas abandoned after earlier mining continue to present serious environmental problems.
Domestic Waste
One problem in mountains where transport is limited and the same watercourse may serve several communities is the safe disposal of domestic wastes, particularly human wastes and sewage. Treatment facilities are difficult to construct and may only reach a small population because of the terrain.